Broken
by Rae325
Summary: This woman looks nothing like the woman that Emma had met two years ago. Everyone has a breaking point, and Regina has reached hers. Post-ep quick fix for 2x10. SQ
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: It seems that a new pattern is emerging from the OUAT writers: episodes in need of quick Swan Queen fixes. Here's mine for 2x10._

* * *

"So Mommie Dearest, what have you been doing while I've been working so hard to make our little friend here chirp?" Hook asks, with a theatrical wave at Archie.

"I was visiting my daughter."

"So you've finally been to see her then?" Hook muses, "A week of spying on her from the garden was enough for you."

"Just watching," Cora replies, dropping her parasol on a bench and sitting down next to the restrained Archie.

"What are you waiting for? Is she not broken enough yet? Do you need to go kick her puppy?" Hook asks, seeming amused at his own wit.

Cora however is not amused. She merely scowls, looks at Archie, and asks, "Did you get anything out of him today?"

"Not a word. Here's a stubborn little bug isn't he? Ah, well, maybe tomorrow then." Hook runs the sharp metal of his fake hand down the therapist's chest before turning and leaving Archie alone at last.

Hours later, once Archie has convinced himself that his captors are probably asleep, he makes his move. He takes a moment to muse on how people always seem to underestimate the innocent little cricket or the mild mannered, unassuming counselor. It's an insult really that Cora and Hook didn't even bother with magic, merely ropes and chains hold Archie. But the thing is, they underestimated the man who had grown up picking pockets and staging cons. Archie has been studying Hook all week and had finally managed to steal the key from right out of Hook's trousers hours earlier.

Archie would take a moment to gloat at the fact that he of all people is managing to escape from the woman that everyone Storybrooke is afraid of if only it didn't hurt so much to move. Miraculously it seems to him, Archie manages to make his beaten body crawl out of the boat and onto the dock.

Luckily Archie doesn't need to walk far because once he's out of the invisible ship he is almost immediately spotted. He stops moving and lets himself fall to his knees.

For a moment Emma doesn't believe what she's seeing. Despite fighting ogres and jumping through a portal there is still something unbelievably disconcerting about seeing a man who is supposed to be dead standing right before your eyes. Emma isn't snapped out of her stunned state until she sees James running towards the man in front of them. Emma follows her father, and together they help Archie to his feet and into the squad car.

Emma spends two hours at the hospital with Archie trying to sort everything out. Archie tells her what he can once Dr. Whale has patched him up, and after going through the details a second time, Emma decides that it's time to let the poor man sleep.

Even though it's three in the morning and Emma's shift has long ended, she stalls on going home. She returns to the police station, telling James that she wants to file reports about the evening's events while they're still fresh in her mind. But three hours in the station and Emma has gotten nothing done. She can't stop thinking about Henry and, for reasons that Emma refuses to examine too deeply, she can't stop thinking about Regina either.

They haven't heard a word from Regina since she had disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Emma knew that the former queen had returned to her home, but no one has seen her leave the house in days.

Emma had assured Henry that Regina wouldn't be a threat to him, but beyond that Emma has tried her hardest not to think about the other woman. The sheriff had never doubted her gut before, and now after having been swayed by magic to do just that, she knows she never should have.

That is a conversation - an apology really - for later. Henry will be waking up soon, and Emma needs to talk to him before he hears this news from anyone else.

* * *

Emma walks into the apartment she shares with her family to find Snow and James sitting with Henry making awkward conversation over breakfast. They're stalling, Emma knows, so that she can be the one to tell Henry the news. Because she's his mother. Only she isn't. Regina had been right when she had told Emma that she knew nothing about being a parent, because right now she has never felt more lost in her life.

"Hey Emma!" Henry greets her happily. He's all smiles, like he doesn't have a care in the world, like Emma hadn't told him a week ago that the only mother he'd known for the first ten years of his life had killed a man.

Emma sits down at the table, and she isn't sure why this feels as hard as telling Henry what she had believed to be true a short week ago. But it does. "Henry, I have something to tell you." Henry seems slightly nervous as he looks up from his cereal. "Dr. Hopper's alive."

"What? You said he was dead...You said my mom..." He hasn't called Regina his mom since Emma told him the news. He's barely acknowledge that he feels anything at all for her. But now, Emma watches as Henry's face falls and tears spring to his eyes. "She didn't hurt him?" he asks, almost like he's afraid to hope. Emma's heart is breaking, because she's the reason he lost hope, she's the reason he doesn't believe that his mother loves him.

"No. Cora tricked all of us."

Snow gasps from the background, "Cora's here?" Apparently James hadn't filled his wife in on all the evening's events.

"Yes," Emma says without turning to look at her mother. "Henry, your mom didn't do anything to Archie. Cora set it up so that we would think that Regina killed him." Tears run down Henry's cheeks, and he looks so young.

"No need to cry," Emma tells him with a smile, because she honestly doesn't know what she's supposed to do with a crying kid. "Everything's ok." But Henry's face makes it clear that nothing's ok. And really how could it be? The kid had believed that his mother was capable of cold blooded murder. Emma feels guilty for believing it; how would Henry not feel the same?

"I can take you to see her now, Henry," Emma tells her son eagerly. She's pretty sure she's saying it largely to assuage her own guilt, because honestly if ever there were a time to not drop in on someone unexpectedly it would be now. If Emma had been in Regina's place she probable would have finished off all the alcohol in the house. But Emma needs to do something, because she can barely contain the guilt she feels. Like mother, like daughter, she muses briefly. Emma had robbed Regina of the only thing in her life that she's cared about, and the blonde has to find a way to make it right.

Henry shakes his head frantically. "I have to go to school," he says, standing up and getting his backpack from next to the door. Then, turning to James instead of Emma, Henry asks, "Can I walk to the bus myself?"

"Sure," James says. "We'll pick you up at the bus stop later, ok?"

Henry nods and then he's gone.

Emma buries her face in her hands, and Snow puts a hand on Emma's back. "You can't blame yourself Emma," Snow says, and suddenly the soft, soothing voice is enough to drive Emma mad. She stands up from the table abruptly. "Where are you going?" Snow asks.

"To talk to Regina."

"Oh Emma. Are you sure that's a good idea?" Emma asks.

"Yes" is all Emma says before slamming the door behind her.

She drives to Regina's house more quickly than she probably should considering that she's the sheriff. But even those five minutes feel too long, because it hurts, physically hurts when Emma thinks about what she's done to Regina.

Emma rings the doorbell a few times and is unsurprised by the lack of response. So she uses the spare key that Henry had given her months ago, opening the door slowly, and immediately yelling to make her presence known. "Regina? It's Emma." She doesn't want to be attacked by a defensive former queen with magical powers.

There's no answer so Emma walks further into the house. She peers into the living room and kitchen, and finding no one walks up the stairs towards the bedroom. "Regina?" she calls again as she walks down the hallway. The door to Regina's bedroom is open and when Emma looks in she sees the brunette curled up facing the window.

"Regina, can I come in?" Emma asks. Regina doesn't answer; doesn't move. Emma walks in anyway.

Emma isn't sure where this courage comes from but she walks to the far side of Regina's bed so she can face the brunette. It's almost like looking at a different woman. Regina's eyes are red, her face is puffy, and there are tissues scattered around the bed. In a million years, Emma could never imagine Mayor Mills leaving dirty tissues laying around. But this woman looks nothing like the woman who Emma had met two years ago. Regina looks tiny and fragile and so very broken.

When Regina doesn't acknowledge Emma's presence, the blonde sits down on edge of the bed. "Regina," Emma says again, because it is incredibly jarring to have someone completely ignore your presence.

"What do you want Miss Swan?" Regina asks. Emma notes sadly that there's no heat to the the way the other woman has said her name; no emotion at all.

"I need to talk to you."

"Have your parents decided on a punishment for me?" Regina asks, without making any move to sit up.

And Emma, never one for well crafted words, simply blurts out, "No, Archie's alive."

"What?"

"We found him last night. He's alive." Regina's face finally shows some expression as happiness and relief wash over her, and Emma realizes just how much this man means to Regina. "I am so sorry. I should never have believed that you killed him."

"It doesn't matter now," Regina mutters, turning away from Emma.

"It doesn't matter?!" Emma asks incredulously. No response. "That's bullshit." Regina finally sits up, but her posture is slumped and Emma feels like someone drained all the fight out of the woman in front of her. And then there's the horrible realization that the person who did that was Emma herself. "Look Regina, there are no words for how sorry I am. And I know what an awful situation I created for you. But we'll get everything straightened out, I promise."

It catches Regina off guard to have someone apologize to her. Since she was a small child people had been taken pieces of Regina until finally there seemed to be nothing left. No one had ever apologized before. "It doesn't matter," she repeats.

"How can you say that? Archie's alive. We'll clear your name, and things can go back to how they were."

Regina laughs mirthlessly. "How they were? My dear, I have a child who hates me, who believes that I am capable of murdering his therapist. I was begging you just for a few minutes with _my_ son. I have nothing to go back to."

"That's not true," Emma says too eagerly. The words bubbling inside her are begging to get out. _You have me_. It makes no sense really, because why should Emma care about the Evil Queen? Why should she care about this woman at all? But she does. There's something there that Emma has been feeling for months now. She's been pulled towards the fiery brunette since they met, and seemingly endless nights in the Enchanted Forest thinking about Regina had made Emma realize that there was more than just Henry drawing her towards this woman.

"You know," Emma says, "You were right about me not knowing what to do with Henry. I fed him french fries for breakfast yesterday." Regina makes a horrified expression, and Emma thinks that it's the first time in the conversation that the older woman has looked like herself at all. "You're his mother, and I'm sorry for ever saying otherwise. He needs you."

"He has you," Regina says, the words burning her throat.

"He does, but he needs you too. You were right, he should come home. This is where he belongs."

"I don't want your pity because you feel guilty," Regina says, her pride getting the better of her. All she wants in the world is for her son to come home. The desperation with which she wants this one thing kills her. As if she has no control over her tear ducts anymore, Regina's crying again. She's crying in front of Emma Swan, and Regina doesn't even try to stem the tears. Why keep up appearances when it's already clear that she's broken, that she's been defeated at last?

Emma is tired of seeing people she cares for cry today. She follows her gut and closes the space between herself and Regina so she can press a soft kiss to the brunette's lips.

Regina's crying stops immediately, shock overtaking her. Beyond the shock of how incredibly good Emma's lips feel, there's more. Someone is offering Regina compassion and care, and those are things that she hasn't felt in so very long. Regina responds to the kiss gently, her tongue pressing softly against Emma's lips, a hand moving up to Emma's cheek, steadying the younger woman against her.

When they pull apart Regina can barely believe what she's done. She scrambles to disentangle herself from the blankets, but Emma grabs her arm before she can get off the bed. "There are people who care for you, Regina, and you cannot give up now."

"You're saying that you care for me?" Regina asks, her eyes looking just a bit hopeful.

_Now or never, Swan. _"Yes."

Regina stills. This must be some cruel trick. "You thought that I murdered Archie."

"I'm sorry," Emma repeats.

"Don't apologize. Why wouldn't you think that? I've killed before. I've done awful things," Regina says, her voice breaking slightly. There's nothing like a week lying in bed alone to make you think about your sins, to finally admit to yourself that that's exactly what they are.

"People change," Emma says, echoing what her parents have been telling her.

"How do you know that?" Regina asks. It's not mocking at all. It's merely a genuine question.

"I don't really," Emma says with a shrug. "But I'm trying to believe it."

Regina sees her own fears reflected back in the blonde's eyes. She sees the desperate attempt to have faith in yourself even after a lifetime of being told that you aren't good enough. It tugs at Regina's heart, makes her feel deeply protective of the blonde. It's an instinct that Regina has begun to feel lately, and she's being forced to come to the conclusion that it has little to do with Henry and quite a lot to do with the rush of emotions that Regina had experienced when she and Emma had kissed moments earlier. With a kind smile Regina tells Emma, "You stayed."

Emma nods. "Well if I can change after a lifetime of running then surely you can change too." Regina seems a little stronger now, a tiny bit more hopeful. There is so much that they need to deal with right now, and as much as Emma wants to keep the horribly painful truth from Regina, she can't. "There's something else I need to tell you...Your mother is in Storybrooke."

The look of fear on Regina's face is horrifying, and Emma knows immediately that this is a fear born from years of unspeakable cruelty and abuse. Years in the foster care system have made sure that Emma would know that haunted look in an instant. Emma wraps her arms around Regina, who simply clings. It's still strange to see Regina needy and open, but everyone has a breaking point. And Emma recognizes that Regina has finally reached hers.

Regina pulls away a few moments later completely mortified. In one day had she really just kissed Emma and cried in her arms? "I'm sorry about that," Regina says, pulling herself together at last.

"No need." Emma looks down at her hands. She feels like an awkward teenager again. All she wants to do is reach out and touch Regina.

"Let me make us some coffee," Regina offers. She needs to have this conversation somewhere that feels less vulnerable. Though any mention of her mother makes Regina feel vulnerable if she's honest with herself, it will undoubtedly help if she puts on real clothes and gets out of bed.

"That sounds good. Do you want to take a shower first?" Regina quirks an eyebrow at Emma. "Not that you smell or anything. I just thought that you might want to shower."

"I'll be quick. Help yourself to whatever you'd like in the kitchen. I'll be down shortly." With that Regina disappears into the bathroom.

* * *

When Regina comes downstairs - looking perfect once again - a half hour later, Emma has practically chewed off all her nails. It turns out nervous habits are particularly difficult to change.

Regina busies herself making coffee and setting out cookies for a few minutes before sitting down at the small kitchen table. When Regina chooses the seat next to Emma, instead of across the table, the sheriff can feel her heart speed up immediately.

"How do you know that Cora is here?" Regina asks finally.

"She kidnapped Archie. She set you up," Emma says cautiously. She isn't sure what response to expect from Regina.

Regina doesn't answer for a long time, and when she finally does it's obviously that she's trying not to let her voice shake. "You need to take Henry and leave Storybrooke."

"Woah. Slow down."

"Emma, please. If you love him at all, you will take him and run as far as you can. If she gets to Henry, she'll kill him. You have to protect him."

"We'll protect him together," Emma assures Regina. And while the sentiment is sweet, the words are naive. A lifetime of going up against Cora has taught Regina how futile such efforts are.

"No. My mother won't stop until she's taken away everything that I love. I can't stop her, and I can't let her hurt Henry. Please." She looks at Emma, begging her to understand how much she truly loves Henry, how much Regina would sacrifice for him.

Emma reaches over and takes Regina's hand. Regina can feel the frantic pounding in her chest calm slightly. "We will stop her together."

"You don't know..." Regina trails off. There are so many things that Emma doesn't know, that no one can know about Cora unless they had suffered through the childhood Regina had.

"Let's try to figure out a plan. It's not like running away is fool proof, you know. If Cora can follow you across worlds, she can probably follow me across state lines." It's meant to be comforting, but the panic in Regina's eyes just grows. "We'll figure this out, I promise." Emma sounds far more confident than she feels.

Regina nods. "Promise me that you will protect Henry. It doesn't matter what happens to me as long as Henry is safe, do you understand?" Regina's killed before, but this feeling that there is someone in her life that she would die for in an instant is new. If anything is enough to make her a different woman, she thinks, certainly it must be that.

"I promise." Emma doesn't bother to protest, though hell yes it matters what happens to Regina. But that is an argument for another day, and anyway, Regina might have suspicions about the blonde's feelings on the subject given the number of times she's saved the brunette's life.

Regina gives Emma's hand a squeeze of thanks before pulling away and wrapping both hands around her coffee cup. "I think we should go see Henry," Emma says. She takes a long sip of her coffee, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of being awake all night rush over her.

"Isn't he at school?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking the day off," Emma says, though she isn't exactly sure how Henry will react to either herself or Regina showing up at his school. "You both need to see each other right now."

* * *

They get to Henry's school during recess, and Regina can see her son on the playground in the distance. She's terrified. She wants to run. She wants to fall to her knees and beg her son to believe that she's a good person because she can barely believe it herself. She wants to pull him into a hug and never let him go.

And as she and Emma walk towards the playground, she also wants to grasp Emma's hand and feel the comfort of the other woman's touch. But Regina stops herself. The suddenly extremely complicated nature of Regina and Emma's relationship is definitely a conversation to have with Henry on a different day.

The two woman make it to the edge of the playground by the time Henry spots them. He freezes in his tracks, and Emma is afraid that he's about the turn and walk away. But he doesn't.

Instead, Henry runs at full speed towards Regina. She bends down and puts her arms out, catching Henry as his full weight barrels into her. Henry's crying in an instant. "I'm so sorry, Mommy," he tells her, using an endearment that Regina hasn't heard in years.

"It's ok, Henry. You don't need to apologize," Regina murmurs, her lips pressed against her son's hair. Henry cries harder, and Regina rubs a hand on his back, the other tangling in his hair. "I'm the one who should be sorry, sweetheart."

Henry shakes his head no, because the more he thinks about it, while his mom may have a lot of reasons to be sorry, very few of them have to do with him. "I want things to go back to how they used to be." It's the plea of a boy who ran away from the innocence of childhood, only to realize how much safer the world felt in his mother's arms.

Regina's eyes tear up, and she's fighting not to become a sobbing mess in front of her son. She wants nothing more than to go back, but such things are not possible. She offers the best she has, for both of them. "I love you, and I will always love you. No matter what else changes, that won't. You're my baby boy. I'll always take care of you." She feels a small nod against her shoulder, and she hopes that Henry can believe what she's said.

When Henry's tears calm, Regina asks "How about we go home?" The words are out of her mouth before she remembers to ask Emma's permission. But when Regina looks over at the blonde, she's met with a warm teary smile.

"You're going to let me skip school?" Henry asks, wide eyed, looking every bit like the little kid he'd wanted to be again.

"Just this once," Regina answers, trying her best to sound stern and failing miserably.

"Awesome," Henry says, keeping an arm wrapped around Regina's waist as they walk to the car. "Can we stop for ice cream?" he asks, seeing how far he can push his luck.

Henry seems distracted as he chatters on, so Regina reaches out and grasps Emma's hand, making it clear that she's coming home with them as well. The future is uncertain, but in this moment Regina feels warm and whole.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Thanks for all the interest in this story! I decided to continue it since I don't foresee much happiness occurring in canon anytime soon. I guess if I want Regina to get her happy ending, I'm just going to have to write it! This chapter's mainly just fluff, but I couldn't help myself._

* * *

Henry hasn't let Regina out of his sight since they left his school.

"Can we decorate them yet?" Henry whines impatiently, touching one of the gingerbread men cooling on the wrack on the kitchen counter

Regina smiles warmly at her son. "Give them five more minutes. You can help me color the frosting while we wait."

Henry walks over to his mom, pressing his body against her side as she mixes the icing. She wraps one arm around him tightly, pulling him closer as she continues to add the remaining powdered sugar to the bowl. Regina feels like she just might start crying. This is too good to be true. She thought she would never hold her son in her arms again, but here he is finding every opportunity possible to give her a hug.

Regina divides the frosting into six bowls, and Henry begins adding food coloring. It's been two years now since they've done this, but the old tradition comes as second nature to both of them. They mix up perfectly colored frosting in no time, remembering the exact amount of red and blue dye necessary to make just the right purple color.

It's a week and a half after Christmas, but that doesn't matter. Henry doesn't want to miss another year baking cookies with his mom. He needs for this to be just like it was when he was small; he needs to feel like nothing has changed, like even though his mom was the Evil Queen she would always be the woman whose lap he sat on decorating gingerbread men and watching _A Charlie Brown Christmas_. And he needed to know that they could go back to a time when he let Regina take care of him and show him how much she loved him, that he hadn't ruined everything by pushing her away.

"Why don't you get three plates and knives," Regina instructs her son, reluctantly loosening her grasp on him.

"Oh no, that's ok. I can just watch," Emma tells Regina. She's been sitting at the table, trying to keep out of the way. This is Regina and Henry's tradition, and Emma feels overwhelmingly aware right now that the two people in front of her have been a family long before Emma entered Storybrooke.

"Come on, Emma," Henry says, really acknowledging Emma for the first time since they picked him up. Emma understands why Henry's been preoccupied with Regina, but it still stings when the kid ignores her presence.

Regina gives the blonde a smile, and Emma realizes that the invitation to join the gingerbread decorating party is genuine, that Regina and Henry both want to include her in their traditions. Emma knows she's being overly sentimental due to lack of sleep and the emotional roller coaster of the past week, but tears spring to her eyes none the less.

Ten minutes later and Emma's cookie looks like a piece of abstract art. She frowns at the highly decorated dessert, deciding that it's past the point of no return. Glancing at Regina's plate, Emma sees a cookie that could easily have been sold at a bakery. Does the woman allow imperfection in anything she does? Henry holds up his cookie then, and it takes all of Emma's self control to keep herself from laughing. His gingerbread man is more of a mess than the her own: eyes completely different sizes, a giant red blob for a mouth.

"What do you think Mom?" he asks, holding the cookie up for Regina to see.

"It's beautiful," the brunette replies, and Emma can see that she truly means it. To Regina this is the most perfect gingerbread man she can imagine.

When Emma had decided to put Henry up for adoption, she had pictured the family who would take him in. She had wanted her son to have the childhood she never had, to have a family who would love him more than anything else in the whole world. And Emma realizes now that this is exactly what Henry has gotten. He'd grown up with storybook holidays and a mother who thought that everything her son made or did was the most special thing in the world. Regina had been Henry's best chance.

Emma grieves the ten Christmases she had missed with her child, the gingerbread men that she had never seen. But the blonde knows that with her Henry would never have had the childhood he did with Regina, and Emma feels the need to thank this woman who raised their child to be the beautiful boy sitting in front of them.

How had Emma been so wrong about the former queen? Her desire to bring Regina back from the dark place Emma had witnessed this morning grows stronger.

* * *

Regina and Emma barely talk all day. Henry's constant presence in the room makes having any discussion about what transpired between the two women or about the coming danger nearly impossible.

Emma's exhausted and all she wants to do is go to sleep, but an hour after saying goodnight to Henry, he and Regina are still in his bedroom. Emma's standing by the door, just out of sight of the two people inside the room. Henry's leaning his head on Regina's shoulder, and she runs her hand through his hair while she hums a lullaby. It's a sweet melody, one that Emma has never heard before, and she wonders briefly whether this was a tune from the land where she had been born. Would Snow have sung this to Emma if she hadn't been placed in the damn tree? Had Regina sung this to Snow in the years she had treated the younger woman as her daughter? It all makes Emma's head hurt, and there's already too much inside her brain for one day.

Regina finally brings herself to leave Henry's room. She runs her hands over his forehead a final time, trying to convince herself that this is real, that Henry isn't going to disappear from her life again. It just seems too good to be true that her son wants to be here with her. But he'd made her read him three stories, sing him his favorite songs from when he was small, and lie with him until he fell asleep.

Regina spies Emma in the doorway. "He looks so peaceful," the blonde muses. The boy, normally a deep sleeper, has looked tormented in his sleep this week. He may have been all smiles during the day, but he hadn't been able to hide from his pain in his dreams.

Regina gives a small nod, and Emma sees the longing and pain in the former queen's face. She looks like she's trying to memorize the image of her son so that next time she loses him she will have this picture to hold on to.

The pain rolling off the brunette is palpable, and Emma reaches out and takes her hand. Regina looks briefly startled before her face relaxes into a small smile. They stand together and watch their child sleep.

Regina could stare at Henry forever, but she and Emma need to talk. Maintaining her light grasp on the blonde's hand, Regina leads the way down the stairs. "Can I get you something to drink?" Regina offers, feeling a bit uncomfortable now that she and Emma are alone together.

"Yeah, some cider would be great."

Regina raises an eyebrow in amusement. "You trust my apple cider?"

Emma tries to think of a witty reply, but it's simply too much work for her poor, exhausted brain to handle right now. "Yeah," she replies lamely. Regina pours two glasses and hands one to Emma. "Thanks," Emma says taking a long sip of the drink. "Thank you," Emma tells her again, but this time she means about far more than the drink.

"You just said that," Regina says teasingly.

The echoes of that God-awful conversation are too much for Emma. She had wanted to ease her way into all the serious things she needs to say, but she can't wait anymore. "No. I mean thank you for being Henry's mother."

It shocks Regina. She still can hear the echoes of her fight with Emma. _You're not his mother; I am. _It feels like they've been fighting over Henry for so long, but today they had spent the day together, the three of them, and it had been alright. More than alright, if Regina is honest with herself.

"We're both his mothers," she whispers. It still hurts to say the words, because Regina has been caring for Henry since he was three weeks old, and Emma had waltzed into their lives and changed everything. But maybe it can be ok anyway.

Emma hadn't realized how much she needed to hear those words from Regina until they were spoken. She nods lightly, not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

They stare at each other for a long minute, trying to find words and coming up short. Regina isn't sure if it's the alcohol or the unexpected joy that today has brought, but she walks forward until she's standing in front of Emma and pulls the younger woman into a kiss. The kiss is tender and gentle, and Regina can't stop herself from thinking about the fact that the last time she had shared a kiss like this was with Daniel. She wonders briefly if that wound will ever heal.

And then she's lost in the feeling of Emma. The blonde's lips are soft and her tongue explores Regina's mouth slowly. When Emma touches her, it feels as though parts of Regina that she had forgotten existed are being reawakened. It's terrifying and exhilarating. Last week Regina's carefully crafted world had spun completely out of its orbit, and while she knows she should be working to rebuild the order and control, what Emma is offering her instead feels irresistible.

They move apart, Emma's fingers lingering on Regina's jaw. Emma hasn't had a kiss that good in a very long time. And she supposes that given the fact that nothing in her life has ever been easy or simple, she shouldn't be surprised that the woman who makes her whole body tingle is the woman who adopted her child, her mother's step-mother, and oh yeah, a fairy tale character.

"If you want to run Emma, now would be a good time." Emma looks at the smirk on the other woman's face, but Emma is not playing games.

"I don't scare that easily."

"I don't think it counts as scaring easily since I've tried to kill you and most of the members of your family."

Emma rolls her eyes. It's a weak attempt at driving Emma away. "I told you Regina, I'm not running anymore. And neither are you."

"What does this mean?" Regina asks. Nothing in her life makes sense right now, and she can't deal with all the uncertainty and chaos.

"I didn't peg you as the kind to want to define a relationship so quickly," Emma says, with a good natured laugh. Emma sees Regina's face change. The former queen is about to back track, about to shut down, and Emma can't let that happen. "I don't know what this means either Regina, but I want to find out." Emma runs her fingers through brunette locks. "What do you think about that?"

"I think that this is a terrible idea," Regina says honestly, because when she thinks about this rationally, it is insane. Emma feels her heart drop. "I think that Henry's going to get hurt when you finally realize that this is a mistake." Regina stops before adding _And I think you're going to take him away from me again_.

"I told you, Henry is your son," Emma cuts Regina off. "And the thing is you know that. Legally he's yours. You could keep him from me if you wanted to."

"I won't," Regina says sincerely. She knows what that pain feels like, and she could never inflict that on Emma or on Henry. "I told Henry I would be better, and that means that I'm going to put my jealousy aside and do what's best for him. And what's best seems to be having you in his life. It's what he wants."

"I'm not a threat Regina," Emma tells her. "I never have been."

Regina laughs at that, because coming from the woman who took her son and broke her curse, that statement sounds absurd.

An awkward silence settles around them again. They haven't worked out details about Henry, but Regina feels ok with where they've left that conversation. So she lets it be for tonight.

"I care about you Emma." It's barely audible, but Emma does hear it, and she smiles broadly.

"I care about you too."

"You can't." Regina sees Emma's mouth open, and she puts up a hand to stop the sheriff from objecting. "I don't know what my mother's planning, but I know that she wont rest until she takes away everything that I love."

The words are out of Regina's mouth before she realizes what she's said. She didn't mean to say it. She's only just kissed Emma for the first time today, and she would never say yet that she's in love with the woman. But there's something there, something overwhelming and powerful, and maybe love is the closest word she has to describe the connection she feels to Emma.

To her credit, Emma seems nonplussed. "We won't let that happen," she says, intertwining her fingers with Regina's.

Emma has magic, and she will do whatever it takes to protect Regina and Henry. Tomorrow they can go and see Gold. Tomorrow they will come up with a plan. But right now Emma needs to sleep.

Emma can see that Regina's struggling. There's so much going on behind those dark eyes, and Emma just wants to calm the other woman, to let her rest for a little while. "Let's go to bed."

"Thats awfully presumptuous of you," Regina says, her eyes now twinkling playfully.

"Just to sleep. I promise to keep my hands to myself."

"You're inviting yourself to stay over?"

Emma shakes her head. "You're impossible, you know that, right?"

"It's a good thing you don't scare easily," Regina challenges before turning off the lights in the den and walking to the stairs. "Are you coming?"

"So I'm invited then?"

Regina gives Emma a pair of pajamas to borrow, and Emma goes into the bathroom to change while Regina checks on Henry. When Emma emerges, feeling silly in Regina's silk night clothes, she finds the brunette curled up in bed. The scene reminds Emma of how she had found Regina this morning, and it stirs a deep feeling of protectiveness in the blonde.

Emma pulls back the covers and crawls into bed. She debates for a second whether she should leave space between herself and Regina. _Screw it_. Emma moves so that her body is pressed against the other woman's back. The blonde carefully snakes an arm under Regina's neck; the other wrapping around her waist. Emma's about to ask if this is ok when she feels Regina's hands grasp hers, drawing the sheriff closer.

Emma rests her face against the brunette's neck, and Regina can hardly believe how good this feels. She doesn't deserve to have anything feel like this. But this night, this embrace, is everything she's wanted since she was a little girl. It's protection and safety and companionship, and maybe it's even love. She closes her eyes and lets sleep take her.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma wakes up to the feeling of pressure in her bladder. She lets out a long groan, too tired to drag herself out of bed, even for something as necessary as peeing. She closes her eyes. _Nope. Ignoring this problem isn't going to work_. Resigning herself to having to stand up, Emma reaches over to turn on her bedside light.

_Shit. _Not her light. Not her bedside table. Not her bed.

Then she remembers.

Emma's heart starts to race. She had fallen asleep in Regina's bed. She had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped tightly around the Evil Queen. Emma does not do relationships. Even under the best of circumstances, Emma Swan does not do relationships. And these are not the best of circumstances.

Mid-freak out it dawns on Emma: she's in bed alone.

The haze of sleep dissipates in an instant. Because Cora is in Storybrooke, and Regina is missing.

Emma springs out of bed, turning on the light in the hallway as she exits the bedroom. She runs down the hall until she notices that Henry's door is open. Emma peers inside and sees Regina standing next to Henry's bed watching him sleep.

Emma presses a hand to her chest, trying to still the frantic beating in her chest.

Feeling like a voyeur, but unable to stop herself, Emma stares at Regina. The light in the hall illuminates the woman's form. She's wearing a robe, her arms wrapper tightly around her waist, as if trying to hold herself together. Regina's eyes are glassy, and Emma knows she's on the brink of crying. Emma's almost become accustomed to the once shocking appearance of tears in the former queen's eyes. Since Emma had returned from the Enchanted Forest, she can barely think of a time that she had seen the brunette's eyes dry.

Emma debates going back to bed and letting Regina watch Henry as long as she needs. But Emma knows what it's like to be alone. Maybe better than anyone else in this town, Emma understands what it's like to have no one, to feel forsaken by the world.

So as much as it scares Emma, as much as it makes her hands tingle and her head swim, she decides to let the former queen know that she isn't alone. Emma walks up behind Regina. If they were lovers, Emma would wrap her arms around the brunette from behind, would kiss her neck, would whisper soothing words.

But they aren't lovers. They aren't even friends.

Emma touches Regina's arm lightly as she comes to stand next to the older woman. Regina tries to put the old mask back in place, to hide the flood of emotions washing over her. But the mask doesn't sit right anymore, and the attempt to hide everything away only makes Regina's face look crooked and tortured.

"Couldn't sleep?" Emma asks.

"I needed to see him."

Emma nods. She wonders how long it will take to erase the haunted look from Regina's eyes; wonders how long it will take for Regina to believe that her son isn't going anywhere, that she really isn't alone.

"When I first adopted Henry, I'd spend hours just staring at him. He was so perfect, such a happy baby with these chubby cheeks and the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen."

Regina hears a sniff next to her and turns to look at Emma. "I'm sorry," the brunette whispers. She truly hadn't meant to hurt Emma with her words.

Emma shakes her head with a weak smile. "I remember his eyes when he was born. I looked at him, but I couldn't hold him. I didn't think I'd be able to make myself let him go." Emma's voice is cracking, and her throat burns with choking sobs desperate to claw their way out. She's never told anyone how hard it had been to give up her son, how she drank a bottle of whiskey alone on his birthday every year trying to forget that she had a child. She's never been close enough to anyone to tell. And she can't admit this kind of shame to her parents, they'd never understand the things she's done, the pain she's felt. But somehow with Regina, Emma can finally say words that have lived inside her for eleven years.

There's something about watching Emma cry that stirs up that powerful feeling again; the feeling that is so close to love that Regina doesn't know what else to call it. Maybe it's because Emma shares Henry's eyes. Or maybe it's because she had held Regina so tightly last night that the older woman had slept without nightmares for the first time in months. Or maybe it's the knowledge that they've both shed tears over the same little boy.

Regina engulfs Emma in a hug, pulling the blonde against her shoulder, holding her tightly, just the same way she cradles their son. There are no words exchanged, but the feeling of skin against skin and of soft, gentle hands placing soothing caresses is enough for both of them to finally feel like they're not alone.

* * *

Outside Cora watches. She underestimated the Savior. Regina had been broken; she had lost everything. Cora had been so close until Snow White's daughter ruined everything.

Emma Swan had come along and given Regina back her son. And now watching the two women through the telescope she borrowed from Hook, Cora knows that Emma Swan has brought love back to Regina's life. And Cora's daughter has always had a weakness when it came to love.

Even as a little girl, Regina had been insufferably desperate to be loved. Every time Cora had tried to set her baby down in her crib, she has squalled until she was picked back up again. Regina may have grown into a daddy's girl, but as a newborn she would only quiet down for Cora.

When Rumplestiltskin came to make good on his deal with the miller's daughter, he had picked up the dark eyed child that Cora had grown inside her. And as she always did when someone took her from her mother's arms, Regina had cried and cried. So Cora made a deal.

Cora had paid dearly so Regina would remain in her mother's care, and that meant that whatever happened, whatever her daughter did to push Cora away, didn't matter. Regina's life was Cora's; it had been since the moment she signed Rumplestiltskin's scroll, and it would be until the day one of the women drew her last breath.

* * *

When Emma wakes up again there is sunlight streaming in through the windows. She's back in Regina's bed, and this time she's the little spoon.

"Good morning, dear," Regina says once she's sure Emma's awake.

The sound of that deep throaty voice combined with the feeling of Regina's body pressed firmly against Emma's is enough to make the blonde want to turn around, flip Regina on her back, and remove these insufferable layers of silk. With anyone else she would do just that.

But this is Regina, and it's all kinds of complicated. But for the first time in a decade, Emma is willing to try to make something work beyond a one night stand. This - whatever this is - feels too good to ruin.

"Have you been awake long?" Emma asks, turning to face Regina.

Regina nods, keeping her arms loosely slung around Emma. "A couple hours."

"Jeez. And you've just been staring at my back the whole time?"

A light blush spreads across Regina's cheeks. Being face to face with Emma like this feels vulnerable but surprisingly comfortable at the same time. "Just thinking."

"Mmmm. Sounds dangerous early in the morning." Emma is most definitely not a morning person. Before moving to Storybrooke she had succeeded at never having a job that required her to be awake before 10 a.m.

A flicker of hurt crosses Regina's face, and Emma immediately knows where the brunette's mind went. "I didn't mean it like that," the sheriff whispers. "It's just too early to be thinking deep thoughts."

"It's a little hard not to at the moment," Regina admits.

"Cora?"

Regina gives a nod. "I know she's here because of me."

"Yeah," Emma agrees, not sure why Regina has decided to state the obvious this morning. "She made that one pretty clear when she disguised herself as you and framed you for murder."

Regina continues talking, ignoring Emma's snarky interjection. "What I don't know is if she wants to hurt me or have a family reunion."

"If that's the case then she's got a strange idea of what family reunions should look like."

"Of that I have no doubt," Regina agrees. She spends another moment trying to puzzle out her mother's motives, but Regina doesn't know what to expect from the woman she last saw in a coffin, apparently pretending to be dead. What Regina does know if that whether her mother wants to punish her daughter or show her love, the people that Regina cares about most will be the ones to suffer.

"We're going to have to work with Gold," Regina tells Emma, once thoughts of Cora's motives become too confusing to ruminate on any longer. An alliance with Rumplestilskin is an uneasy prospect, but the former queen can think of no way around it.

Emma's stomach picks the moment to speak up loudly. With a smile, she tells the brunette, "How about you feed me breakfast before we go and see Gold."

Regina smiles at Emma's demand. In one day the sheriff has already made herself at home in Regina's bed, in her life. It's a little bit frightening for Regina to realize how much she likes it, and just how much it will hurt when this inevitably is taken away from her.

* * *

Henry wakes up to the smell of pancakes. After a week of food out of a box or from Granny's, the scent of home cooking is enough to make the boy jump right out of bed.

Henry walks towards the kitchen and is met by the sound of laughter. It's been so long since he's heard his mother's laugh like this: free and unreserved. Henry peeks around the corner, wanting to know what's making his mom sound so happy.

"Honestly Emma, I would think you had never made pancakes before."

"I'm trying to make them look like Mickey Mouse. It always looks so easy in movies."

"Perhaps you want to work your way up to making your pancakes look like rodents and start with simply getting all the batter on the skillet," Regina deadpans.

"Sorry," Emma says, chuckling and wiping splattered batter off Regina's clavicle.

Henry watches his mothers exchange a look that can mean only one thing. Why hadn't he realized it before? Of course this is how the story would have to end.

"Good morning," Henry says, making his presence known.

His mothers move slightly apart, looking a little bit like teenagers getting caught by their parents.

"We were just about to come wake you," Emma tells Henry.

"Emma couldn't wait for breakfast," Regina adds. "It seems that someone is even more impatient about eating than you are." She gives her little boy a smile as he sits down at the table in his plaid pajamas.

Regina puts two pancakes onto a plate and places them in front of Henry, who immediately drowns his breakfast in syrup and shoves a large bite into his mouth.

"This is delicious," Henry says, stuffing another piece of pancake into his mouth. He swallows then tells Emma playfully, "No offense, but I'm a little sick of pop-tarts."

Emma looks at Regina guiltily, but the brunette just smiles. There's something about waking up with Emma Swan in her bed and Henry sleeping soundly in his room that has made Regina unable to maintain her normal glare.

"I guess we'll just have to teach Emma how to cook, won't we?" Regina says filling another plate with pancakes.

There's a twinge in Regina's chest as she says these words and the reality increasingly sets in that she isn't Henry's only mother anymore. But then she looks up, and the matching smiles on Henry and Emma's faces at her declaration make it all worth it. They're both grinning like idiots, and Regina feels her lips turn upward into a smile as well. And damn, if this doesn't feel like happiness.

After putting the last pancakes on a plate, Regina walks over to the table, pressing a good morning kiss to the top of Henry's head as she passes him. Henry smiles. Emma and Regina are sitting on either side of him, and they're all having breakfast together like a family. Maybe his moms don't know it yet, but this is how things are meant to be. And Henry will make sure that this is how things stay.

Emma eats her breakfast so quickly that she barely speaks a word, letting Henry chatter away to Regina about his horse and learning to sword fight. Emma manages to eat three and a half pancakes before she decides she's too full to manage another bite. "That was delicious. How did you learn to cook so well anyway?" Emma asks. She certainly can't imagine Cora teaching her daughter how to cook.

Before Regina can answer, Emma's phone rings. She looks at her phone: _Mary Margaret_.

"Hi Snow," Emma says putting the phone up to her ear and watching the way Regina stiffens at the name.

"Emma where are you?" Mary Margaret asks. So this is what Emma missed out on in her teenage years.

"Henry and I are at Regina's."

"What? Why?"

"Look, Snow. I'm an adult and I don't need to explain my whereabouts to you all the time." Emma takes a deep breath. She knows that Snow is just worried, but after a lifetime of being parentless, having a doting, overbearing mother feels smothering. "We're eating breakfast right now, but we're going to go to see Gold and try to work out a plan to deal with Cora after breakfast. I'll text you when we're on our way there and you can meet us, ok?"

"Ok, just be careful Emma." The blonde rolls her eyes.

"See you later."

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me that Emma Swan and your daughter were lovers?" Hook asks, when he returns to his ship after watching breakfast at the Mills house. "Wouldn't have spent quite so much effort on Swan if I'd known what her type was."

"Did you find anything out?" Cora asks. She has no time for the pirate's love sick ramblings.

"They're going to see Rumplestiltskin; they think he can help them defeat you. Little do they know that he'll be long dead."

Cora shakes her head at Hook's foolishness. The stupid, arrogant pirate clearly has no idea who he's up against. Without another word to Hook she disappears in a cloud of purple smoke.

Cora reappears a moment later in the middle of Rumplestilskin's shop.

"Let's make a deal," Cora tells the imp.

If Gold is surprised to see the miller's daughter, he doesn't let on. "And why would I do that dearie?"

"Because I have no business with you Rumple. All I want is my daughter back. But if you stand in my way, well I may just have to go and introduce myself to that pretty young woman you seem so fond of. What was her name again...oh right, Belle. I've always had a way with names, don't you think?"

"And what do you want it return?"

"The Savior is going to come to you asking for help to defeat me. Perhaps you could suggest that the magic in this book would help." Cora holds out a book of old, dark magic. Gold takes the book, and then Cora is gone.

* * *

"Why can't I come with you to see Mr. Gold?" Henry whines as he, Emma, and Regina approach Granny's.

"Ruby's going to watch you," Emma tells the boy again, "and we'll both pick you up as soon as we're done."

"But I can help."

"Henry," Regina says, stopping walking and bending down to look him in the eyes. "Do you remember that I told you yesterday that I would always protect you?" Henry nods. "That's what I'm doing now. Emma and I are going to protect you."

"But we should all protect each other," Henry insists, before adding, "We're family."

"We are," Regina admits, wondering how Emma feels about being lumped into the category of _family _with the former evil queen. "You're my son and Emma's son, and it is a mother's job to take care of her child. So that is what we are going to do."

Henry for once is stunned silent. He nods and continues walking to Granny's.

When Emma and Regina arrive at Gold's shop they are met with a frantic Snow and a not very happy looking Charming.

"Emma!" Snow exclaims, throwing her arms around her daughter. Emma thinks her mother is being a little ridiculous. They had proven that Regina was innocent; what exactly did Snow think the other woman would do to her daughter?

"Glad you have once again decided to hold a family reunion in my shop," Gold interjects, and Snow releases Emma from the hug. "I assume you're all here to make a deal with me."

"No. No deals," Regina tells him. "We all have a common interest here, or have you forgotten?" she asks icily.

"Very well then. What is it you would have me do?" he asks.

Emma steps forward so that she's face to face with Gold. "Tell me how to defeat Cora."

"Such valiance. Such confidence. Decided that you're the Savior after all, have you?"

"You're the one who keeps telling me how powerful I am, that I have magic. We all want Cora gone. All you have to do is tell me how to defeat her."

Gold smiles and taps his fingers together gleefully, looking so much like the magical demon Regina knew when she was a young girl. She feels the hatred in the pit of her stomach grow seeing the joy in his face at Emma's request.

"You do have magic, dearie," he tells the sheriff. "But that won't be enough to destroy a powerful witch like Cora. For that you're going to need more."

A book appears in the man's hands, and Emma looks at it unsure. Regina's voice rings out fiercely in the shop, "No!"

"No other way, dearie," Gold says, looking at the brunette now.

"What is it?" Emma asks.

"It's dark magic," Regina replies, walking to stand next to the blonde. "The kind my mother uses. The kind I used."

Emma looks at Regina. The brunette's eyes are pleading. _Don't do this._ "Will I be able to defeat Cora?" Emma asks.

"I don't know," Regina answers. But her eyes tell Emma differently. _There is enough magic in the book._

"Regina," Emma says softly, ignoring the fact that her parents are in the room, "if this will let me protect Henry and you then I'll do it."

Regina shakes her head. "We'll find another way."

"I'm the Savior, and I was born with magic. That must mean I can do this." Why wouldn't she be able to do this really? As crazy as it all seemed at first, Emma has realized that she has power. She has power that Rumplestilskin doesn't even understand. She will be able to handle this new magic.

Emma turns back to Gold. "What do I do with the book?"

Regina reaches out and grabs Emma's arm. The blonde is all confidence and bravado. That terrifies Regina, because she knows that magic will corrupt anyone who touches it. And right now, Emma seems to believe that she can walk away from all this untouched.

"Emma," Regina says, desperation in her voice. "You don't need to do this. Magic... it will change you."

"She's not you, Regina," Snow says from behind them. Regina ignores the jibe, never breaking eye contact with Emma.

"I'll be ok," Emma says in a whisper, the certainty dissipating.

"It's so easy to let it change you. To not see it until it's too late." Regret floods dark eyes. Magic had ruined Regina's life, and she has to protect Emma from the same fate. Even if this is the only way that Regina will ever be safe from her mother, she doesn't want Emma to suffer for her. In that moment Emma can't deny the truth any longer: she loves Regina.

"You'll see it. You'll pull me back if I go too far." Emma says it with such confidence that Regina desperately wishes she was the woman Emma seems to believe her to be. "You had no one Regina. You were alone then, and it must have been so easy to get lost." Emma puts her hand on Regina's cheek. A tear falls down the brunette's face. Is this what forgiveness feels like? "But I have you, and you won't let me get lost."

Regina hopes that she has the power that Emma believes she does. "I won't," she promises.

Emma turns back to Gold, "What do I need to do?"

He hands her the book. "You already know."

Emma opens the book and blows. Words swirl in the air. Her eyes glow purple.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: So, fluff happened. Sorry. I promise that Cora will be back in the next chapter to move the plot along. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this interlude of pure fluffiness._

* * *

One week passes, and still no sign of Cora.

"What is she waiting for?" Emma asks, kicking the ground next to the tree that she has once again failed to make invisible.

Regina smiles at the frustrated woman before her. "Nothing good, I'm certain. But at least it will give us some more time to work on your skills."

"I can't do this," Emma says, fully aware that she sounds like a sullen child.

"You can."

Emma clenches her eyes shut. She can feel the magic coursing through her, can feel her erratic heartbeat pounding against her chest, can hear her blood flowing through her veins whooshing unnaturally loudly in her ears.

"Try to focus all your energy. Feel yourself pulling the energy from your body and directing it towards the tree. Keep the energy within you, but will the tree to change."

"I know," Emma says through her teeth.

Regina moves behind Emma, pressing her body against the blonde's back. Emma breathes, and she feels the magic swirling chaotically within her finally focus. She reaches back and takes Regina's hands. With their joined hands, Emma focuses the magic on the tree. Before she opens her eyes, she knows she won't see anything.

Emma looks at the site where the tree used to be grinning. "I can't believe it. That felt incredible. Like I could do anything."

"Just about," Regina says seriously. Emma looks at the brunette with surprise in her eyes. "You don't know how powerful you are."

"I need your help to do even simple magic."

"All the magic is coming from you." Regina hasn't let herself use any magic, even as she trains Emma everyday, even when it would be so easy to take a bit of magic from Emma when they touch. "You're just using me to help you focus."

Emma blushes, because there's something incredibly intimate about needing the brunette's touch to control what's inside her, about needing another person so much, being so closely connected.

"The more power you have, the harder it is to control," Regina explains. "But you'll learn, and once you do, you _will_ be able to do almost anything."

The weight of the statement passes between them. It's terrifying and thrilling to Emma, and it's too much to contemplate right now. "All I need to be able to do is stop Cora."

She flicks her hand at the tree, and all of a sudden there's a loud crack. The tree, now visible once more, has splintered raining branches down on the ground.

"What you need to do is concentrate. This isn't a game," Regina tells Emma, who most certainly does not appreciate being scolded as though she's their misbehaving son.

"You think I don't know that," Emma growls. She is keenly aware of everything that is at stake and how easily she could fuck this all up. She's never made connections before, never been responsible for anyone else. But now it's on her to protect everyone she cares about.

Emma's eyes are glowing purple and sparks are beginning to shoot from her fingers. Regina immediately grabs Emma's hands, not sparing time to think about the implications of the fact that she seems to be the only thing that can calm Emma when she begins to lose control of the magic. "I'm sorry," Regina whispers as she watches Emma's eyes return to their normal color.

A few sparks continue to issue from Emma's fingers, and she sees a shiver run down Regina's spine at the feeling. "Is it hard for you to be surrounded by all this magic?" Emma's been wondering this since they began training, and in this moment of intimacy and calm she finally has the courage to ask.

It's not that Regina longs to use magic again. For 28 years she hadn't used magic, and honestly she hadn't missed it. No, what's hard about all this is the feeling of being surrounded by power, and of once again resigning herself to being without any control herself.

Regina shivers again - this time for an entirely different reason - as a memory of her mother using magic on her takes hold in her mind. Emma senses the brunette's distress and wraps her arms around the former queen. But in this moment those arms only serve to remind Regina what it feels like to be restrained. Emma's more powerful than Regina is now, and even though she trusts Emma, the feeling of being held by someone with that kind of power terrifies Regina.

She pulls out of Emma's arms, and is instantly ashamed. Hadn't she learned as a child not to draw attention to her own weakness?

Regina's staring at the ground, refusing to make eye contact, and Emma isn't sure exactly what she's done wrong. Regina begins to walk away, and Emma pleads, "Regina, come back." No response. _Damn, this woman is endlessly frustrating. _"Regina!"

She didn't mean to do it. But Emma barely has any control over all this magic, and when she's feeling too much it just comes out of her. And so, without meaning to, she's frozen Regina where she stands.

It all happens so quickly that Emma doesn't put it together until she hears Regina whimper and let out a soft "please."

The sheriff is horrified, and immediately releases Regina. "Regina, I'm so sorry." But it's too late. The brunette is storming off towards the house, and Emma knows enough not to try to stop her.

Emma paces back and forth in the backyard for a minute before she can't take it anymore. The sound of Regina begging will never leave her mind, and Emma needs to try to do something to take that pain away. Even if it means that Regina is going to yell at her - because that's what she does when she's backed into a corner and vulnerable - Emma needs the brunette to know that she isn't alone.

Emma finds Regina bent over her kitchen counter, trying to steady her shaking hands. When the blonde had bound her with magic it had been like being thrown back in time, transported instantly to a childhood that feels all too close to becoming a reality again now that her mother is in town biding her time.

"Regina," Emma whispers, moving slowly towards the brunette.

"What do you want?" Regina does her best to make the words come out strong and emotionless.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Regina says. She wants Emma to leave, but the blonde has been staying with her for the past week, which makes chasing her out of the house a little difficult.

Emma is afraid to come any closer, so she stands awkwardly watching. She knows if she were in Regina's position, she would want to be alone, and part of Emma feels bad for not allowing the former queen her space. But Emma can't bring herself to leave.

Finally the trembling stops, and Regina stands up straight. Face once again tightly controlled, she turns to Emma, "I'm sorry for how I reacted outside."

Emma had expected anger; she had expected for the brunette to be yelling furiously. But this…this just breaks Emma's heart. "Oh Regina, no. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You didn't," Regina insists. There had, after all, been no physical pain.

"I scared you. I would never intentionally do that to you. Please tell me you know that." She's desperate for the other woman to understand that Emma never meant to hurt her.

Regina nods. She knows that Emma didn't intentionally overpower her. But that doesn't make it any less frightening that someone can control her once again.

* * *

Regina's anxious when Emma slips into bed that evening. She knows it's irrational, but today has reminded her of the new power dynamics between the two, and right now there is something terrifying about the idea of Emma holding her at night.

Emma sees Regina stiffen at her presence. "I can go sleep in the guest room." She hates herself. Hates that she can't control herself enough to make Regina feel safe in her presence.

"No, please stay." Regina is angry at herself for reacting this way, for letting the memories still affect her so strongly after all this time. And she's scared that she's pushing Emma away; that she's going to lose something that she's only just starting to let herself believe could be real.

Regina rolls over so that she's facing Emma, and the blonde notices tears in the other woman's eyes. Emma knows that what she's about to say is hypocritical – because she is incredibly not fond of sharing her own insecurities – but she says it anyway. "Talk to me."

Regina looks into green eyes. She knows how much Emma cares about her – knows what's really happening here even if they're both too scared to say it out loud. All Regina has ever wanted was true love, and as much as it confuses her to think about Daniel having not been the only love in her life, Regina also doesn't want to lose what she's developing with Emma.

Emma's voice breaks through the haze of Regina's thoughts. "I get what it's like to be scarred by the shitty things that happened to you when you're a kid."

The guilt hits Regina full force. "I'm so sorry," she breathes. There are no words to make up for what she's done to this woman.

"I didn't mean it like that," Emma says, but there's no denying the fact that the woman she's lying in bed with is the reason that she had spent her childhood being sent from foster home to foster home.

"You should go Emma." The Savior has no place being here with the Evil Queen. What Regina has done to the people she loves is unforgivable.

"Did you know what my parents were planning to do with me?" the blonde asks.

"I knew nothing of their plan. If I had…" She stops, because she isn't sure what she would have done. It's almost hard to remember the strength of the desperation and hatred that had consumed her then. She'd killed her father. "You were just a child. You shouldn't have had to pay for other people's mistakes."

Emma doesn't know the details of the deal Cora had made with Rumplestilskin, but she knows enough to understand that Regina had paid dearly for her mother's actions.

"When you're ready to talk, I'll be here to listen." It's acceptance of what Regina has done. It's a promise that it won't stand between them. Regina feels gratefulness well up in her chest.

"My mother used magic to punish me. When you restrained me earlier, it reminded me of her."

Emma wants to kill Cora more than ever, wants to go and find the witch and take pleasure in torturing her.

"The first time I used magic, it was to send my mother to Wonderland. She had just forced me to marry Leopold, and I knew that the only way to be free would be to rid myself of her. It was the first time in my life I had felt powerful." Regina remembers that feeling so clearly. After a lifetime of being controlled, the feeling of finally being the one in control was intoxicating.

"You asked me if it was hard to teach you magic when I'm trying to not use it myself." Emma nods, encouraging Regina to continue talking. "It's frightening to not be the one in control again. It's been a long time since I've been in that position." It had been difficult to give up that control, to make herself vulnerable again, but she'd done it for Henry. And she would continue to keep her promise.

"You don't need to be scared with me. This isn't about power, and I'm not going to use magic to control you." She looks at Regina, willing her to believe this, even after what happened earlier.

Regina nods. Despite their past, she trust Emma. This is more than she's ever admitted about the abuse she suffered as a child, and she couldn't have shared that with someone she didn't trust. "My mother won't be so kind. You do whatever you need to do."

"But our plan…" They had worked out a way to entrap Cora, keeping her alive but powerless.

"You are what matters. Don't you dare risk your life to spare hers. Do you understand?"

Emma nods, and Regina moves in closer so that their bodies are touching. A week of sleeping in the same bed has been enough to bring the desire to an almost painful need for both of them. But every secret shared, every insecurity revealed makes this more real. And neither of them do real.

Emma does quick fucks in the back of her car. She does one night stands that involve kicking people out of her bed before falling asleep. She does not do sex with people she actually has feelings for. Not since Neal. Jail and a pregnancy were enough to convince her to change her ways.

But she's got one on Regina who has never done this before. In all her years in this world and the other, she has never had sex with someone and had it be about anything other than power and control.

So damn if this isn't the most terrifying thing either of the women have done in years, if not ever.

Emma brings her mouth to Regina's in a soft kiss, which the former queen intensifies quickly. They both know they're done waiting, done snuggling, done trying to figure everything out first. Because it could take a lifetime to figure out all the baggage these two have. _And screw that_, Emma thinks. _T__he last two years have been one giant leap of faith after another. Why stop now?_

* * *

Regina wakes up sweating, a choked sob dying in her throat. She's never been free from nightmares, but now with her mother so close, they're worse than ever.

Regina disentangles herself from Emma, taking a moment to appreciate how beautiful the blonde looks after an evening of being screwed until she was so exhausted that she managed to sleep through the brunette thrashing and screaming in her sleep.

There's a moment where Regina actually thinks about waking Emma and asking for the blonde to hold her. It's what she wants so badly, just to let herself be comforted, to let herself be the girl who had been able to allow Daniel to care for her and protect her. _Try to protect her_ _at least._ In the end, Regina reminds herself, he hadn't been able to protect either of them.

Regina picks up her pajamas from where Emma had thrown them clear across the room a few hours ago. The former queen quietly gets dressed and goes down to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. It's a routine that she had cultivated in 29 years of being alone in this house: a cup of tea and an old black and white movie to distract her from the memories of another world. Tonight she decides on chamomile and _Vertigo_.

Regina is just past the opening credits when she hears footsteps on the stairs. She looks up to see Henry in a pair of Superman pajamas walking over to the couch. "Henry, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I heard you screaming in your sleep."

Regina feels her face flush. She wonders how many times her son has been woken up by her nightmares. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I didn't mean to wake you."

"That's ok," Henry tells his mom, sitting down next to her on the couch. "Are _you_ ok?"

Regina smiles at Henry. _When did he get so mature? _She still thinks of him sometimes as the baby she'd heard say his first word: _Mama_.

"I'm fine. Just a bad dream." She takes a chance and smoothes Henry's hair back from his face; he lets her.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Henry asks his mother the same question she asks him when he wakes from a nightmare. "You were right, talking about it helps."

Regina thinks, for the first time in a long time, that she must have done something right raising him, because her son has turned into an incredible young man.

"I was dreaming about some bad things that happened to me when I was young."

"Something that Cora did?"

Regina doesn't want to share the details of her childhood with her son. It's a time in her life that she would rather he not know about, but she's been trying to be honest with him, so she attempts to think of how to explain everything in a way that's acceptable for her eleven year old.

"You know how dreams are, everything is jumbled. But yes, a lot of it was about Cora."

"You don't have to be afraid. Emma and I are going to protect you." Henry's smiling at her - desperate to be her knight in shining armor. She loves him all the more for it.

It's a waste of breath to tell Henry that there is no way he is going anywhere near Cora, that she will be the one protecting him. Instead Regina wraps her arm around her son and presses a kiss to his hair.

Henry sits quietly in Regina's arms for a moment before speaking again. "Your story wasn't in the book."

The comment takes Regina by surprise; Henry hasn't mentioned the book to her in months. She still wonders where that damn thing came from. "No, I suppose it wasn't."

"Would you tell it to me sometime?"

"Of course," she tells him, though the thought is terrifying. "How about sometime that isn't the middle of the night? You must be sleepy."

"I can stay up with you, Mom."

Regina's eyes go misty, touched by her son's offer. "Thank you, but I'm ok baby. You should go back to sleep. We have a busy day planned tomorrow." She's been giving him horseback riding lessons, and between the two of them they had finally persuaded Emma to join them the next day.

"But you always stay up with me when I have bad dreams."

"That is because I'm your mom, and that's my job."

"Do you think I could stay here anyway?" Henry asks. Regina isn't exactly sure what this is about, but she can think of no reason to deny his request.

"Of course. As long as you lie down and try to sleep, ok?"

"Ok," Henry says, taking a pillow and putting it on Regina's lap, just the way she used to when he was small.

He settles his head onto her lap and Regina lays her hand on his back, rubbing soft circles over the flannel of his pajamas. He seems to need extra reassurance these days, and she's all too happy to oblige. They're piecing this relationship back together somehow, and it brings warmth back to Regina's soul that she hasn't felt since her son began pulling away from her and searching for his birthmother.

Just when Regina thinks Henry might be asleep, he says lazily. "Tomorrow, you'll tell me your story right?"

"I will," she promises. "I want you to remember something though. The best part of my story has always been you. Being your mom has been the very best thing in my life."

Henry opens his eyes and smiles at Regina. She can see the doubt being erased, can see that after months of uncertainty, he knows that she loves him more than anything. "And Emma too, right?"

"Yes, Emma loves you too."

"No, I mean she's one of the best things in your life."

"Henry…"

"It's ok," Henry assures his mother. "I'm happy you found someone to love again. You need to be in love to have your happy ending."

Regina's stunned speechless for a minute, and by the time she's recovered Henry's snoring softly.

Emma saunters into the room a minute later wrapped in one of Regina's robes. "You really shouldn't leave someone with abandonment issues alone in bed after the first time you have sex."

"Emma!" Regina hisses, because their son is asleep right there.

"He's sleeping," Emma says with a smile as she sits down next to Regina.

"I'm sorry for leaving you in bed alone," the brunette apologizes, trying to keep her voice low so as not to wake Henry.

"It's ok. I didn't think you'd go too far," Emma says lightly, but that most definitely hadn't been true when she had woken up to an empty bed and felt her heart sink.

"I won't," Regina promises, sensing the blonde's insecurity and wrapping an arm around her.

Emma leans her head on Regina's shoulder. "Do you think the kid is onto something?" Emma asks once she's curled up against the other woman's side.

"About what?"

"About our happy ending," Emma says, because all of a sudden Mary Margaret's optimism and faith in true love doesn't seem so foolish. And that makes Emma feel brave enough to utter the words, "I do love you, you know?"

Regina does. And she replies with the another truth that they both already know: "I love you too."


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: I know, I know. I promised plot, and here I am again with nothing but character study. Tonight's episode just made my heart hurt for poor, incredibly messed up Regina. So, I made myself feel better by writing a scene where Regina and Emma try to heal each other's broken hearts._

_Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback on this story! It is very, very much appreciated._

* * *

Regina isn't sure if she will ever get used to this.

The feeling of lying underneath Emma and being _made love to_ is unlike anything the former queen has ever experienced.

Every time Emma puts her mouth to Regina's center, the brunette feels like she could burst into tears. Emma must sense this, because she's developed a habit of reaching up and intertwining her fingers with Regina's to ground the brunette as she screams out her release.

Emma says nothing about the moisture in her lover's eyes because she understands the feeling so well. Emma might not be prone to crying, but she feels the same overwhelming sensation every time she's with Regina. The feeling of being cared for, of being needed, of being loved.

After Emma has come hard enough that she's sure her legs can no longer support her weight, Regina pulls the blonde to her chest and holds her so tightly that Emma feels certain for the first time in her life that she won't be tossed away. Regina holds on like her life depends on it, like she would do anything to protect Emma.

"I'm not going to run, you know," Emma tells Regina one night as they lie together. Regina's holding on tighter than usual, almost squeezing the air from Emma's lungs.

Maybe it's the four orgasms, or the comforting darkness in the bedroom, or simply the fact that after only a few weeks with Emma, Regina feels closer to the blonde than she ever has to anyone in her life. Whatever the reason, tonight she confesses feelings so difficult to say.

"I trust you," Regina tells the woman resting on her chest, surprised to find truth there. "It's not you. It's my fault. I lose everyone I love: Daniel, Henry, my father, my moth –" She stops herself halfway through the world _mother_, aware of just how fucked up it is to love someone who hurt her so deeply.

"It's ok," Emma says, rubbing her thumb soothingly along Regina's hip. Foster care is a good lesson in all the ways a bad childhood can screw a person up. Emma can't imagine ever loving someone who did the things to her that Cora did to Regina, but she's seen how people are conditioned by that kind of abuse. "It's ok to love her," Emma assures the brunette.

Regina shakes her head. "It's really not ok." Everything in her head is so screwed up. She knows that. Weeks spent with Archie have begun to chip away at the wall of misplaced feelings. The hatred for Snow that had protected Regina from her anger at her mother for everything she had done and at her father for the years he stood by and did nothing to protect his daughter.

"It is," Emma says again, this time moving so that she's looking at Regina, just able to make out her face in the moonlight. The former queen turns her head and looks away. But she doesn't run; she keeps holding Emma tightly. "It's ok to love her. And it's ok to hate her too. That's all ok." The blonde settles her hand on the side of her lover's face.

There's so much inside Regina that she's always been told was wrong, was awful; so much that she herself knows is rotting and ruined. But now there's someone telling her that it's ok, that she is lovable anyway, _that she is loved_.

Tears trickle down Regina's face, and she wonders if she will ever learn to control the tears again. It's like decades of tears withheld have finally broken through the dam, like her body has betrayed her and she can't hide a single thing anymore. But then she feels a soft hand swipe at her cheeks, and Regina thinks she would cry a million tears just to get to feel the care in that caress.

"For the record," Emma says, "You didn't lose Henry and you aren't going to lose me. I know you and Henry hit a rough patch, but that isn't uncommon."

"Yes, every child discovers that his mother is the Evil Queen and hates her."

Emma laughs softly. "Maybe not, but adopted kids struggle with wanting to know why their birth parents abandoned them. And Henry taking those issues out on you doesn't mean you did anything wrong."

"You didn't abandon him, Emma. You loved him enough to let him go, and now that you're ready, you love him enough to stay." Emma's chest is tight, and she could so easily start sobbing. For ten years she'd thought about the child she had given up, wondered if she had done the right thing, wondered if she hadn't just become her own parents who she had hated so fiercely for abandoning her. Hearing that Regina – _Henry's mother _– thinks that Emma did the right thing means so much.

It's too much for Emma to talk about right now though. She's still getting used to sharing, to having someone who even wants to know what she's feeling. So instead Emma guides the conversation back to safer ground, telling Regina, "The point is you adore Henry. You've always done right by him, and he knows that. Have you seen him recently? He won't leave your side. All that kid wants is his mom back."

"I would never hurt him," Regina says then because it suddenly seems imperative that Emma knows this. "I love my mother, but I know that how she treated me…" She trails off because she still can't say the word abuse. Her mind is still a war between resentment and anger for the things that were done to her, and the clawing feeling that she deserves each and every one of those awful things. But her son – he deserves nothing but love and happiness and safety. "I would never hurt Henry. I love him so much. I know I made a lot of mistakes, but I've always loved him."

"I know that," Emma assures Regina. "Kid got the childhood I always wanted, that I always wanted him to have."

The two women let the silence settle around them for a while. Regina runs her fingers through soft blonde locks.

"I love you," Regina whispers softly, almost reverently, a little while later when she's unsure if Emma is even still awake.

Emma looks up at Regina with heavily lidded, sleepy eyes. "I love you too." The brunette is surprisingly good at saying it. Sometimes, Emma thinks, Regina looks at her like a kid who can't believe what Santa brought her for Christmas. That look is on Regina's face now, and it makes Emma feel light and joyful and at peace.

"Whatever happens –" Regina begins, but Emma cuts her off.

"Nothing is going to happen. We are going to get the happy ending that we deserve. You, and me, and Henry." It's terrifying for Emma to think about _happily ever after _because that sounds like a damn long time for someone who's never stayed in one place longer than a few years. But Emma can't imagine ever wanting anything other than what she has right now.

"Whatever happens," Regina continues, "Remember that I love you, and I always, always will."

Emma smiles, because she knows that Regina gets it, gets how much Emma needs to hear the word _always,_ because she never has before. No one has ever loved her enough to want forever. Until now.


	6. Chapter 6

When Regina arrived in Storybrooke, she tried to forget the past. She had cursed her subjects to forget their past selves, but sometimes she believed that she was the one truly cursed by remembering.

Even though there was a stable in Storeybrooke, Regina never rode a horse during all the years of the curse. She had ripped the heart from Rocinante in an attempt to keep from sacrificing the only person she had left. Regina had killed her beloved horse that she had ridden as a small child experiencing her first taste of freedom, if only for a few precious moments. She had ridden that horse with Daniel, believing so foolishly that she could ride off into the sunset with him and have her happy ending. She had ridden that horse in the dead of night to go train with Rumplestilskin while everyone else in the castle slept. And she had ridden that horse as Queen traveling through her kingdom.

But all those people that Regina had been – the child, the wife, the Evil Queen – she wanted to forget. When she came to this land without magic she had wanted to let herself be someone other than the grotesque person into whom the years gone by has transformed her. And maybe she wasn't sure who was left behind once everything she had become was cleared away, but at least she knew what she didn't want to be. So she'd stayed away from riding, because it no longer felt like freedom; it felt like a shackle to a life filled with pain.

But then David had given her son a horse. Regina had been thrilled when Henry agreed to let her go riding with him. In those long awful weeks when Emma had been in the Enchanted Forest and Henry had been living with David, those riding lessons were Regina's only moments of joy.

It's hard to believe that the happiness this last month has brought is real. After having lost everything and given up all hope, it is so very hard to trust that this all is real.

The single effort to teach Emma to ride a horse had not gone well. The blonde had put up with the shaky, terrifying feeling of being on a horse for five minutes before insisting that she would much rather be on the ground watching Henry and Regina ride. So today that is exactly what Emma is doing: sitting on a picnic blanket, snacking on some chocolate that Regina packed, and watching from solid ground, thank you very much.

And what a show it is to watch. Emma watches as two horses canter – was that the word Regina had used? – towards her. The animals' movement is graceful and beautiful, but far more astounding is their riders. Emma has never seen two more mesmerizing smiles.

Regina dismounts first so that she can stand next to Henry and make sure he reaches the ground safely. It's unnecessary at this point, but he's her baby and being overprotective is an instinct she can't seem to break.

"How did I do?" Henry asks Regina.

"You were great sweetheart." She's smiling while she speaks - honest to God smiling like there's not a care in the world – and Emma cannot get enough of it. The way the smile lights up the former queen's face makes her look so much more beautiful than the blonde could ever have imagined.

"Not like you though," Henry says, and Regina chuckles before leaning down and kissing the crown of his head.

"I've been riding for a long time. You'll learn."

"Did you see her, Emma?" Henry asks, "When she did those jumps. It was so cool."

Emma blushes. Yes, she had seen Regina doing some tricks, but truth be told Emma was mostly focused on the other woman's ass and legs at the time. "It was very impressive," she tells Henry, trying to keep from turning a brighter shade of red.

"Do you want to walk with us back to the stables?" Regina asks Emma, "Or are you too comfortable there to move?"

"I suppose I could get up, unless you want to sit down," Emma says patting her lap.

Regina lets out a loud throaty laugh before walking to the blanket.

"Eww. I'm right here," Henry reminds them.

"We're going to traumatize our poor son, you know?" Regina says kneeling down in front of Emma and pressing her lips to the blonde's.

"Mom!" Henry exclaims.

Regina feels Emma's laugh against her lips, and it all seems like magic. Like joy she never expected to feel: a normal, boring, absolutely perfect day with her family.

_Our son_. The words are getting easier to say. They're even starting to bring Regina happiness. Emma is awkward and scared when it comes to being a mother, and as strange as it is, Regina likes watching the blonde get her footing, watching her transform into a real mother. It turns out, to Regina's gleeful surprise, that parenting Henry isn't a zero sum game. They can both love him. They can both be his mothers. Slowly, very slowly, the fear of losing him is starting to fade.

Henry allows his horse to graze with Regina's for a moment since it doesn't seem that his mothers plan on moving too soon now that Emma has pulled Regina into her lap.

He sits down on the picnic blanket with his moms and grabs a piece of chocolate from the box next to Emma. "Does everyone ride horses in the Enchanted Forest?" he asks. Emma rolls her eyes. _Will the kid never get sick of asking questions about that place?_

"There aren't any cars there Henry. Horses are necessary to travel," Regina explains. She doesn't like talking about the other land with Henry; she still wants to share as little as possible about her life before Storybrooke with her son. She doesn't want him to think of her as the Evil Queen – especially now that she finally feels like they're getting back to how things used to be.

"That's so cool." It's his answer to pretty much everything about the Fairy Tale Land.

"No, you know what's cool, kid?" Emma asks. "Vintage cars."

"There is nothing _cool_ about that death trap of yours," Regina chides.

"It doesn't break down nearly as much as your car."

Regina turns to Emma and mouths, "but mine has a bigger backseat." This has been one of Emma's favorite surprises about Regina: her playful, teasing sexiness. It was a little unexpected from the tightly wound Mayor Mills, but Emma is starting to discover the layers to that woman that she never knew existed.

"I like the way you think," Emma says with a wink and another long kiss.

Henry gives them an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Guuyyyss. Are you going to keep doing that?"

"Does it really bother you Henry?" Regina asks seriously, not for the first time. "You can tell us if this is hard for you."

"No, Mom," he replies with a little whine. "I already told you that."

"I know sweetheart, but it's just that this must be a lot for you."

Emma is once again extremely grateful that she doesn't have to do this parenting thing alone, because she really would have no idea how to have this conversation with their kid.

"Really, it's awesome. I promise," Henry insists. "I get to have you both."

"Henry," Regina says, feeling guilty for how she's behaved in the past. "I promise that you will always have us both. I'm sorry for trying to keep you from Emma. She's your mother too, and I won't do that again."

"I know," Henry tells her truthfully. "Now can I go play while you two are being mushy?"

Apparently that's all Regina's going to get for this attempt at getting Henry to talk to her and Emma about their relationship. "Sure sweetie. Be careful." And then Henry's off and running towards his favorite tree to climb.

Regina sighs and settles back into Emma's arms. "Don't worry," the blonde reassures, "he's fine. Actually he's surprisingly unfreaked out by the fact that his mothers are having lots and lots of sex."

Regina rolls her eyes. "That's what I'm worried about."

Emma kisses the side of Regina's neck. "Relax."

"Emma. This is serious!"

Luckily for Emma, her phone chooses this exact moment to start ringing and cut off her girlfriend's scolding. "Hello." Emma can make out David's voice on the other end, but the connection is full of static. "I can't hear you…Wait, where are you?...Ok, I'm coming."

Emma hangs up and turns back to Regina, "I'm sorry."

"Duty calls, sheriff?"

"Afraid so. Should I meet you two at home later?" Emma can't quite believe that she's calling Regina's house home. She had stayed over for a few nights after Regina's name had been cleared and the former queen was clearly still feeling fragile. And then, staying for comfort had turned into staying for sex and – as absolutely shocking as it was – intimacy. As much as Emma looks forward to the sex she looks forward to the rest of it just as much. The cuddling, the talking, the being silent together, _the companionship_. Nights with Regina are the first time in Emma's life that she truly feels like she isn't alone.

"Call me when you're done playing Savior and I'll let you know if we've made it home or if Henry is still busy being Tarzan." Regina eyes the boy climbing much higher up a tree than she's really comfortable with. She bites back the urge to remind him to be careful.

"Will do. Sorry for cutting the afternoon short."

"You'll make it up to me later," Regina says with a smirk.

"I will," Emma promises before stealing a quick kiss and a piece of chocolate for the road and heading across the field towards her car.

Regina lies down on the picnic blanket enjoying the feeling of the sun beating on her face as she watches the horses grazing and her son playing happily.

And then she hears it.

"Hello dear." The voice is like ice down Regina's spine.

Even knowing that her mother was in Storybrooke, she is unprepared for this moment.

Emma is unlocking the car when she feels overwhelming panic. Somehow she knows immediately that what she's feeling is coming from Regina. Emma sprints back towards where she left her lover sitting in the field. The blonde is so close to where Cora is standing behind Regina, but suddenly it's like her body is stuck in molasses. She can't move, can't get any closer. She screams, but Regina can't hear a word the sheriff says.

Emma watches helplessly as Regina turns around. "You," Regina utters, her body unconsciously recoiling from Cora.

Emma screams at the top of her lungs, but still no sound penetrates the invisible barrier. She can hear Regina, but the brunette is oblivious to Emma's presence.

Regina scrambles to her feet, and her mother walks closer. Regina backs away. It's an instinct really – one born of years of being coaxed closer only to be hit or bound.

"Regina," her mother says in a voice like honey.

"Why are you here?" Regina whispers, wishing her voice were stronger.

"I had to see you," Cora says, her eyes filling with tears. "I needed to tell you that I know why you pushed me through the looking glass, and I know why you tried to have me killed. And it's all right."

"I think it's not alright," Regina tells her mother in a raspy voice. _How can her mother stand there and have the audacity to forgive Regina?_

"I love you."

Those three words are everything that Regina has wanted to hear from her mother since she was a little girl. She wants so desperately to believe them now. Wants to melt into them, wants to let her mother actually be a mother for once in Regina's life.

But it's too much to believe. Regina shakes her head, pulls away, and steels herself against the games she remembers all too well. Her mother had always been a master at using the promise of love and approval to manipulate Regina.

"I've just always shown it in all the wrong ways."

Emma watches and listens helplessly from where she's trapped. _Don't fall for it Regina_, Emma pleads silently.

"And I never should have made you marry the King."

Emma watches as Regina looks down, her face overcome with pain. Emma feels sick. In that expression, she sees the depth of the horror that Regina has endured. Everything that Cora set in motion.

"I'm so sorry," Cora continues, tears falling down her face.

Regina looks up again. Her own eyes burn, but it's nothing compared to the pain in her chest. Her mother is saying everything she's needed to hear, but it can't possibly be true. She can't be trusted.

"When you cried over my coffin it all changed."

_No_, Regina thinks. _No._ _If she changed she wouldn't have come to Storybrooke, kidnapped Archie, and let the pirate torture him._ "You framed me for the cricket."

"Temporarily. So you could see what these people really think of you. What _that woman _really thinks of you."

The mention of Emma is enough to snap Regina out of the alluring spell of her mother's words. "She loves me!" Regina says forcefully. In her mind she can hear herself as a teenager on the night her mother had crushed Daniel's heart: _I love him_.

Cora gives her daughter a sympathetic smile. "Oh you poor girl, will you never learn?"

Regina is terrified. She needs to find Emma, needs to find Henry. She can feel her breath coming in short gasps. The world feels like it's spinning around her. She's powerless to protect the people she loves.

"My dear, do you really believe that the Savior loves you?"

Emma sees Regina's lips quiver, her face fall, and it breaks Emma's heart. If they survive this encounter she is going to hold Regina and tell her how much she loves her over and over and over until it finally sinks into that damn thick skull.

"She's the Savior, Regina. And you've been bad for too long. You've done too much for someone like that to ever love you."

"No," Regina whispers. Her eyes are filled with tears, her throat tight with them.

"Oh my poor little girl," Cora says.

Emma screams so loudly her throat aches. She tries to punch her way through the barrier, but it's no use. She wants to get her hands on the witch and strangle the life out of her.

"I can help you," Cora continues. "The Savior is just pretending to love you to get to Henry. You know that Regina. But I can help you. Together we can get your son back."

"I have Henry."

"Do you really? As long as Emma is here will Henry ever really be yours? And when she leaves, who do you think he's going to choose."

There's a war raging within Regina's chest. Her mother is voicing Regina's deepest fears, the things she can't push away, the things that she dreams about when she's asleep wrapped in Emma's arms. These are the fears that haunt Regina even as her life finally has begun to feel right.

Regina closes her eyes. She tries to picture Emma's face. She tries to hear Emma's voice reassuring Regina that she is loved, that Emma isn't going anywhere.

But Cora is unrelenting, and her voice pierces through Regina's thoughts. "I want to help you Regina. I just want my daughter back. I want us to start over."

Regina squeezes her eyes tighter. She pictures Henry's face. "I don't see that happening mother."

"I am so sorry. I can do better," Cora promises. "If you just let me into your heart."

"No," Regina says, shaking her head frantically. It's so hard to refuse her mother. It's so hard to turn away the love she's been begging for since she was a child. But she can't trust this woman, and she can't trust who she will become if she lets Cora back into her life. "I am trying so hard to be worthy of Henry. I am trying so hard to change. For him. For them."

"Let me do the same for you," Cora says moving closer. Regina's paralyzed. Her mother is inches away from her face. Her breath tickles against Regina's cheeks. "Let me love you," Cora says splaying her hand over her daughter's chest above her heart.

Emma watches the scene overcome by fear and repulsion and desperation. And then the anger builds; she can feel it like a crescendo rising out of her. All of a sudden there's a blinding white light. The barrier Emma has been pushing against is gone, and she's propelled forward. She lands on the ground but quickly scrambles to her feet.

Cora leaves in a poof of purple smoke as Emma runs towards Regina. Emma wraps her arms around the former queen, who hangs limply in her arms. "Are you ok?" she asks, but there's no response. Regina gives nothing.

Emma holds on tightly, and then it's as if Regina snaps out of a trance. "Henry!" Both women rush in the direction of where he had been playing screaming his name.

"What's wrong?" Henry asks obliviously as his mothers run over to him and waste no time engulfing him in a group hug.

* * *

"Is that what you were going for then? Helping to bring that adorable little family together?" Hook taunts Cora, as she watches Regina, Emma, and Henry from the distance.

"You don't understand my daughter Hook."

"Maybe not," he says with a shrug. "But I'm pretty sure Emma Swan loves her. She would have to given how many times she refused me."

"My daughter has always had such bad taste in lovers. Always below her. But it matters little now."

"And why is that?" Hook asks, though he seems fairly uninterested in Cora's family drama.

"My daughter loves me."

"Have you ever considered starting slow? Maybe have tea with her? Ask to see some pictures of her kid," Hook suggests. He has long known his traveling companion is entirely insane. But at least it's kept him amused for 29 long years.

"No, I'm just setting the stage right now."

"For what?" Hook asks, hoping very much that the plan involves allowing him to move on getting revenge against Rumplestilskin.

"For when I rip the Savior's heart from her chest."

"Thought you tried that one already"

Cora just gives a smile, and Hook knows not to ask anymore. She disappears once more, leaving only purple smoke and an annoyed Hook in her wake. _Yes, _Hook thinks_, that woman is completely insane._

* * *

"Henry, I need you to hang out in you room for a little while so I can talk to your mom." Emma's not giving the kid a choice on this one. As much as he might think he's a miniature adult, this is not a conversation that he needs to hear. Emma walks Henry up to his room to make sure that he gets there instead of stays on the stairs to listen.

When Emma returns to the living room, Regina is pacing back and forth. Emma walks in front of the former queen, stopping her in her tracks. "Hey," Emma says with an attempt at a comforting smile. "Come sit down with me and talk."

"I don't like leaving Henry alone."

"He's been alone plenty since your mother has been in town. He's ok. Come sit." Emma grasps Regina's hand and guides the brunette to the couch.

"I love you Regina. Tell me that you know your mother was lying."

Regina sits quietly and looks down. Her eyes are teary.

Emma curses Cora for the millionth time. _How had the day gone so wrong? _This morning they were happy. This morning there hadn't been a care in the world.

"Look at me Regina." The brunette looks up immediately, and Emma recognizes the hurt child, the girl so desperate for love that when given a command she complies immediately, terrified to upsetting someone. "I love you so damn much. It scares me how much I love you. Like I didn't know I could feel anything like this. And I just…I love you!" Emma says frustrated.

Regina is staring at Emma like she's trying to believe the words. But it hurts to love someone who doesn't love you back. She's been through that with Henry, and she cannot do it again. She can't form the words to tell Emma how much she loves her. Not with the gnawing fear that her declaration will be used against her.

"Regina," Emma whispers. "Please talk to me."

"Why is she here?" Regina asks. She sounds like a small child.

"I don't know." It's the truth. Emma wishes she understood Cora's agenda in Storybrooke, but honestly she doesn't have a clue. "Please talk to me."

"Do you think she really wants to change?"

Emma is pretty sure of the answer. Whatever Cora is here for it isn't good. But Emma knows that she needs to tread carefully. "I think she isn't off to the best start since the first thing she did was kidnap Archie and frame you for his murder." Emma holds her breath waiting for Regina to lash out.

"I know." Regina needed to hear this. She needed to be reminded of what her mother is capable of, because it has always been easy for her to push everything aside and choose not to deal with it. "I just…" She trails off, and Emma moves closer to Regina, placing a comforting hand on the other woman's knee. "I feel like I owe her the same chance that Henry is giving me."

"It's not the same at all Regina!"

"Why not?"

"Because you're a good mother, and I know you always have been." Regina shakes her head. It's so hard to think of herself that way after the past couple of years. "Maybe Henry was pissed at you because you didn't tell he about the curse and fairy tale land or whatever you call it, but you know what? You took care of him and loved him from the moment he was in your arms. You never hurt him."

Regina looks down shamefully. "When you were gone, he didn't want to stay with me. I tried to keep him here."

"What did you do?" Emma asks, even though she's already heard the answer from Henry.

"I enchanted a tree to grab Henry as he tried to run away," Regina spits out. She hates herself so much for this. "It was a spell my mother used on me all the time."

"What did you do to Henry after that?" Emma prompts.

"Nothing! I wouldn't hurt him!"

"I know that," Emma says running her hand through brown hair. "I want you to remember it too though."

"I became her, Emma. I became my mother, after I promised myself that I wouldn't."

"You aren't your mother." Regina looks unconvinced. "Henry loves you, and Evil Queen or not, you've always loved him. I see you with him now, and thanks to your incredible VHS collection, I saw what you were like with him when he was little. And you don't need forgiveness for how you raised him." Regina's eyes are teary, and she feels so grateful to Emma for saying this. After years of trying to do what's right for her son, of struggling to be a good mother with no role model to help her know what that looks like, it feels nice to know that at least someone believes she didn't completely fail.

Emma's voice is kind and steady and sure. "Tell me what she did to you."

Regina's own voice feels locked in her throat. She doesn't know how to say the words that she hasn't said aloud for the almost sixty years they have lived inside her. She feels so vulnerable. Emma can see the damage Cora inflicted even without Regina speaking. And it just makes Regina feel more like the helpless child that her mother knew how to manipulate so well. She wraps her arms around herself, and Emma responds by moving closer. Regina reminds herself that Emma loves her; that she knows who Regina is and she loves her anyway. The former queen finally finds the courage to look into the blonde's eyes. Emma smiles and nods, trying to encourage Regina to speak.

"She used magic to punish me when I didn't do what she wanted. She would tie me up with a spell so I couldn't struggle, and then she would use an enchanted whip. It hurt like the non-magical kind, but it didn't leave a mark. She said that she couldn't make me even less marriageable by leaving scars. She kept me tied up until I begged and apologized and promised that I would be a good girl. When I was young, I resisted. She would leave me alone and bound until I had soiled myself or until I was sobbing for her to make the pain stop." The embarrassment claws at Regina. "When I got older, I realized there was no point resisting her."

Emma's heart is breaking, because even though this isn't unexpected, it still feels shocking and nauseating. Emma doesn't realize that she's crying until Regina wipes a tear from her cheek, and the blonde is ashamed that she's the one being comforted. "I'm so sorry Regina."

Emma tentatively reaches for her lover, unsure whether Regina will allow the contact right now. But she does. The brunette melts into the other woman's arms, settling herself against Emma's side, head on her shoulder. They sit back together on the couch, and Emma rubs Regina's arm, trying to soothe, trying to give Regina a safe place to keep talking.

"My mother tried to control everything about my life." Regina lets out a mirthless laugh. "She insisted it was her life."

"When did the abuse start?" Emma asks, unsure whether she should ask questions or let Regina guide the conversation.

"She always punished me when I was bad," Regina mutters, and maybe more than anything else Emma's heard tonight, this makes her feel like someone has punched her in the stomach.

"Regina," the blonde says with a sigh and a voice full of sorrow. The brunette stiffens at the edge of pity in the other woman's tone. "Nothing that woman did to you was your fault. You were a child, and you deserved to be loved. Please don't forget that."

Regina gives a weak nod. "You are nothing like her," Emma whispers against Regina's hair. "You're a good mother and a good person."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I think your parents would disagree with you on that."

"I don't care what they think. I know you. And I know you're a good person."

"You didn't know me then." Regina looks dejected. She looks like she's waiting for Emma to run.

"I know you were in pain. I know that your mother killed the person you loved and forced you into marriage. I know you had no one and no hope. And I know from experience that when you're desperate and hopeless it's hard to remember who you are or why you should be good."

Regina sees a glimpse of how alike she and Emma truly are. "You know you can tell me about your past too. I don't ask, because it's your business. But if you want to talk, I'm here."

"Thank you," Emma says, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. This is the part she is awful at. Telling her own secrets, revealing her own vulnerabilities. She isn't that strong.

Regina senses the other woman's discomfort. She lifts her head off Emma's shoulder to look at her. "It's ok," she reassures. "You don't have to say anything. If you can't ever talk about it, I understand. Today is the first time I've ever told anyone what my mother did to me. Even Daniel – I couldn't tell him all of it." Then with a soft smile she add: "I'm glad I told you." It makes Emma's heart soar.

"I'm glad you told me too. Look, Regina. I want you to know things about me. I do. I'm just not ready yet."

"I'm a very patient woman," Regina says with a teasing smile.

Emma lets out a laugh because the brunette is usually the very antithesis of patient. But it feels good to laugh when everything is dark and serious and painful. Emma reaches forward and kisses Regina softly.

Regina allows herself a moment to enjoy the feeling of Emma's lips. When they pull apart, the former queen moves on to a topic she dreads discussing. "We should keep working on your magic. I'd imagine my mother will come back to see me, and that will be the perfect time for us to take her powers."

"And the magic will be mine?" Emma asks nervously.

"Yes," Regina confirms. Sensing Emma's anxiety, she adds, "You can handle it. I know you're strong enough, and you've already taken on so much power and it hasn't changed you."

Emma feels a lump in her throat. _Now or never. Spit the words out._ "I think it has."

The brunette's eyes grow wide. "What do you mean?"

"When I broke the protection spell your mother put around the two of you today, I didn't even mean to do it. I just felt so angry. I wanted to kill her so badly. That's what made the spell break. It was like the magic wanted to allow me to kill her. I think I would have if you hadn't been there."

Regina recognizes then that Emma is so much like Regina herself when she had first used magic. Emma is a person who has so much anger from a lifetime full of wrongs, and it is just too easy to let that pain out with magic. "Ok. We will find something to channel her power into. There are magical conduits, like fairies' wands. Perhaps you or your mother can persuade the blue fairy to allow us to use one."

"Regina," Emma whispers. "I don't want to hurt anyone." The brunette turns back to Emma, forgetting for a moment the plans of how to trap her mother's magic. "What if I can't stop myself?"

"I'm probably the wrong person to ask about restraint and magic," Regina says with a self-deprecating smile. And then she's in mayor mode: find a problem and strategize. "There are, I suppose, two options. Either you don't use magic or you work on controlling the anger."

"I need to use magic to trap Cora. We don't have any other choices."

"If you don't want to do this, we will find another way," Regina tells her lover firmly.

"No. I can do this," Emma promises. She can't let Regina down.

"This sounds ridiculous, I know, but Archie's been helping me with how to deal with anger. I've been breathing and focusing on Henry, and it actually helps. So maybe we can work on something like that."

Emma nearly starts laughing. She's getting anger management advice from her girlfriend, the Evil Queen. It's all a little too strange. But then she thinks about how crazy – and how difficult - it must be for Regina too. Emma had been in therapy once as a teenager after a particularly bad stint in a foster home, and she hated every moment of the experience. She hated the vulnerability, hated having her wounds picked at. "I'm proud of you," Emma says.

Emma snuggles in closer to Regina, and the brunette is overwhelmed once again by how much she loves this woman. "I'm sorry for dragging you into all this," the former queen says sadly.

"I'm choosing to be here. Gold may have made me the Savior, but this I'm choosing. I'm here because I love you."

_It sounds so simple_, Regina thinks. They've both been pawns in Rumplestilskin's game for too long. She wonders whether making these choices now – to be a better woman, to control her anger, to love again – is enough to make up for all the ways she has been manipulated in the past. It's all she can do really. Because thinking about the past – thinking about being controlled and used – leads her to anger and vengeance, and she needs to put those things behind her. She needs to put them behind her if she has any hope at finding freedom.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Thanks again for all the follows and favorites. And a big thank you to everyone who reviewed; I appreciate the feedback! I know that this chapter is short and has a cliffhanger. I apologize on both accounts, and I will try my best to update again soon!_

* * *

It had taken Emma two hours to fall asleep that night, but she had eventually drifted off leaving Regina to stare at the ceiling. She had watched the paint swirls above her until she was sure the blonde was sleeping deeply and movement wouldn't wake her.

Regina grabs her robe and resigns herself to another sleepless night. On her way downstairs she opens Henry's door to check on the sleeping boy and finds her son very much awake.

"Mom!" Henry says, surprised to see his door open in the middle of the night.

"Henry. I didn't mean to startle you. What are you doing up?" He shrugs.

"Can I join you?" Regina asks. Henry's light is on, and his bed is covered in comic books and a container of oreo cookies. He's not planning on going to sleep anytime soon.

"Sure," Henry says. Regina sits down next to her son, as he clears the bed so that she has room to stretch her legs. He looks at her guiltily as he moves the cookies to his bedside table. "Sorry," he whispers. Regina just smiles – she's too grateful to have her son back to begrudge him anything. But that freaks Henry out because it feels like his mom has been walking on eggshells with him since he moved back in with her. "You can yell at me," he tells her, because cookies in bed should at least earn him a stern scolding. "I'm not supposed to eat in bed or eat cookies in the middle of the night."

"That's ok," Regina tells him, because right now, cookie consumption seems so insignificant. She smiles to herself as she thinks about Emma stuffing her face with oreos before dinner last night. "I suppose the cookies are a habit you picked up from Emma. We can just blame her."

"You never yell at me anymore."

Regina would laugh at the complaint, except that Henry seems genuinely upset about this. "I realized that I was too strict with you. You're a good kid, Henry. A young man now, I suppose. And you don't need me yelling at you to do the right thing."

"Oh. Ok." That sounds good, but still Henry isn't sure that's the whole reason for the change in his mom's behavior.

"What's wrong?" Regina asks, because clearly this is about more than her lack of discipline recently.

"I just want you to be my mom, ok? You can yell at me or ground me if I sneak out or lie to you. I just want things to go back to how they've always been."

"I thought you wanted things to change," Regina says a little confused. He had asked her to change, and he'd been right. She'd held on too tightly, tried to keep him from running from her.

"I thought so too, but I was wrong." Henry looks at Regina who waits patiently for him to keep talking. She has changed, he realizes. She's changed for the better because _he _asked her to, because she loves him so much, because she can't live without him. He feels so guilty it makes his chest feel tight and his eyes burn. And then a sob breaks free, and Regina immediately puts a comforting hand on his arm, which really only makes him feel more guilty.

"I told you that you weren't my real mom," Henry says with another sob. "I love Emma, but you're my mom. I didn't mean it when I told you I didn't want to see you again. I want you to be my mom."

"Oh Henry, come here." Regina pulls Henry against her, cradling him. "I am always going to be your mom. There is nothing you could say to me to change that." She understands this now, maybe for the first time. Because she really had thought that she could loose Henry. But she understands now that she can't stop being a mother, can't stop being _his _mother. Henry can run away, can tell her he hates her, can stop calling her _mom_, can grow up. Nothing will change the fact that Henry is her son.

"I've loved you since the moment you were placed in my arms. I love you more than anything in the whole world Henry."

"I love you too," Henry says, hugging her tighter. Regina smiles and presses a kiss to her son's hair. He pulls out of the hug and looks at his mom. There are tears on his cheeks, and Regina wipes them off with her thumbs like she had when he was a toddler having a temper tantrum. "I guess I thought that because you were the Evil Queen or because you didn't give birth to me or something that it meant you didn't love me."

And suddenly this conversation feels familiar to Regina. She had bought every book she could find about parenting and adoption. But in the last eleven years she's certainly learned that there are things you can't learn from a book and things you can't prepare for.

Regina tries to think of what to say to allay his fears, but then Henry pipes up again. "I guess that was stupid of me, huh?"

Regina lets out a relieved chuckle, because he's smiling at her. And she thinks that it's ok if he's had fears in the past, because it's normal and to be expected, and now he can tell her about them. Now he can joke with her. After so long without being able to laugh with her son, she is incredibly thankful.

"Nothing that you feel is stupid," she assures him, because she is pretty sure a few of those books and Archie mentioned something about validating kids' feelings. "But you were wrong Henry. Loving you and being your mom has nothing to do with whether you grew inside me. And it has nothing to do with who I was before you came into my life. Because from the moment I held you, I was your mom, and I promise you sweetheart, that is all that matters."

Henry's heart swells, because it feels good to be so loved. He wants to make sure that his mom knows that he loves her too. "It doesn't matter to me either, you know? That you didn't give birth to me." Henry sees his mom's eyes flood with tears; she looks so moved. He realizes that she really didn't know. He's glad he told her.

"I need to apologize to you," Regina says. "I know that Emma and I fought over you a lot, and that was wrong of us. We both love you, and I mean this Henry – we're both going to be your mothers for the rest of your life. You don't need to worry about us being jealous of each other, ok? That's over, and it never should have happened. We're the adults, and we acted like children."

"That's ok," Henry tells her. He's pretty sure he'll keep making mistakes even when he's a grown up. "I forgive you."

"Thank you." They both settle against the headboard of the bed. Things are going to be ok. "Can I have a cookie?" Regina asks, because after a day like today her personal rules about junk food can be broken a little.

"Sure!" Henry says excitedly reaching for the cookies and placing the container on the bed between himself and his mom.

Regina grabs for an oreo, and Henry decides that gives him a free pass to have another one himself. "Mmm," Regina says biting into the cookie, "these really are delicious."

Henry laughs. "You're getting crumbs on my bed," he tells her sarcastically.

"I suppose that's just the price you'll have to pay for bringing cookies up to your room," Regina tells him with a grin, brushing the crumbs onto the floor and making a mental note to vacuum tomorrow.

Regina decides that maybe she should push her luck a little with the heart to heart. "Now tell me something. How do you really feel about Emma moving in with us?"

"It's awesome. I love Emma, and I want you both to be happy. I mean it's kind of weird that you guys fell in love. But it's also kind of perfect, you know?"

"I do." Regina thinks that Henry summed her relationship with Emma up pretty accurately: it's completely strange and improbable, but also unexpectedly perfect.

"Everything is going to be ok, Henry," Regina says, reaching for another cookie. "I know there's a lot going on now, especially with Cora being here. But I promise that Emma and I will keep you safe, and everything will be alright."

"I know," Henry says confidently. "Good always defeats evil."

Regina smiles; she's thrilled to hear her son consider her to be on the side of good.

* * *

Regina is drifting in and out of sleep with Henry resting against her chest when she hears a scream. She bolts up and runs to her bedroom to find Emma sitting up and covered in sweat.

Regina sits down next to her lover, rubbing a comforting hand on her arm. "It's ok. It was just a dream."

"No. It wasn't. It wasn't a dream. Regina!" Emma is terrified and frantic.

"It was," the brunette reassures. "Look around. You're safe. You're in our bedroom. There's no one here but us." Emma shakes her head frantically, and Regina keeps rubbing the blonde's arm gently. "It's ok. Just a dream."

"No. She took it. I don't know how."

"Who?"

"Your mother. She took my heart."

A flash of fear crosses Regina's face, but then she reminds herself of the protection spells she'd placed around the house. "She can't come in here, remember. And she can't take your heart."

"She took it in my dream," Emma says. "But I think it was real." It sounds crazy, Emma knows, but still she can't shake the feeling that it wasn't just a dream. "Can you…check?"

"Emma."

"Please. I'd feel better if you checked."

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you." Regina says nervously.

"You won't," Emma tells the former queen with complete certainty.

Regina presses her hand to Emma's breast, and the blonde feels only a slight pressure followed by an overwhelming sensation of warmth and love as Regina's hand disappears into her chest. For a moment she can think of nothing but that feeling of love. But then Emma watches Regina's eyes become wide and filled with horror. And Emma knows: there's nothing there.


	8. Chapter 8

"Regina," Emma whispers, her fear matching what she sees on her lover's face.

Regina's breath is coming in short gasps. Her head is spinning. She's going to be sick. She can't speak. Can't breathe. Her mother has Emma's heart.

Despair washes over Regina. Cora has Emma's heart. All Regina can see is her mother crushing Daniel's heart. Ashes falling from a gloved hand. Regina should have known. She should have kept away from Emma. But she didn't. She was selfish. She had wanted love too much. And now Emma is going to pay the price, just like Daniel.

Regina catches her lover's terrified eyes. The brunette withdraws her hand slowly from the other woman's chest; letting her fingers linger on the blonde's skin, thumb caressing gently, trying to calm the fear in those beautiful green eyes.

Regina's other hand moves up to Emma's cheek. "It's ok," Regina says, pushing the tears and the terror out of her voice.

She can do this. She knows how to be strong. She's been strong for herself – to survive – to make it through a childhood, a marriage, a life full of pain and despair and enemies at every turn. And now it's time to be strong for someone else. It's time to be strong because Emma is terrified. It's time for Regina to be strong for the woman she loves.

"It's going to be ok, Emma. I promise you." Regina's voice is steady and sure. The sound of that voice and the feeling of the heat of the brunette's skin is enough to calm the frantic beating of Emma's heart – wherever it is.

Emma gives a weak nod. "I love you Regina," Emma says. If her heart is about to be crushed, Emma needs to make sure that Regina knows this.

"Don't," Regina says sternly, because if she is going to be strong then she cannot entertain the possibility that Emma will die.

"Please," the blonde begs. She needs to hear Regina say the words. She needs to be loved. "Tell me."

"I love you. And I am going to keep telling you that for a very long time. You are the most infuriatingly stubborn woman I know, so don't you dare give up now."

"Not sure I'll have a choice if Cora decides to crush my heart." Emma watches as Regina's face crumbles, and the sheriff feels guilty for her words.

"I love you," Regina repeats. Because if Emma doesn't survive, Regina wants her voice to be the last thing the other woman hears. Her voice, her hands, all of her showing Emma that she is so loved.

Emma watches as the former queen takes a deep breath, burying the uncertainty once again. "You're going to be ok. I'm going to find Cora and bring your heart back."

"You can't! That's what she wants. It's obviously a trap."

"It doesn't matter." Regina will find a way to return Emma's heart. Even if it means giving into Cora's demands. It doesn't matter. Emma will be ok.

Then something dawns on Emma. "You need to tie me up right now! She can control me, and I have all this magic."

Regina offers a sad smile and runs her hand through Emma's hair. "I'm going to have to enchant whatever I tie you with. It will be easy for her to use your magic to break free otherwise."

Regina's voice catches in her throat. It sounds anguished, and Emma realizes what she's asking the other woman to do. "It's ok. I want you to do this. I'm asking you to."

"Ok," Regina agrees. She pulls a soft scarf from her dresser, waves a hand over the material, and brings it to Emma's wrists. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault," Emma says, though she can tell Regina doesn't believe her. Emma brings a hand up to touch the brunette's cheek. Regina takes Emma's hand in her own, pressing a series of soft kisses to palm and fingers before tying the blonde's wrists to the headboard of the bed.

"I'm going to call your parents to stay with you and Henry."

"Make them take Henry away. If Cora can make me say things or do things, I don't want to be near him."

Regina nods and reaches for her cell phone. "I'll dial and then let you speak. I somehow doubt they would be too happy to hear from me in the middle of the night."

Emma makes it through the phone call. Despite the franticness of Snow's voice, Emma manages to convince her parents to come to Regina's house immediately without revealing why they are being summonsed.

Regina sets her phone down and moves back to Emma. The blonde looks more scared than Regina has ever seen. And she's seen Emma learn that she was a fairy tale character; she's seen her fight a dragon. Regina winds her arm around Emma's back - around the arms tied to the bed - and moves in as close as possible.

There are arms wrapped around Emma. A kiss placed to her forehead. It's comfort and love and protection. And Emma needs it. She needs this so badly that she doesn't resist letting herself be comforted. "It's ok," Regina soothes, as her hand settles itself on the skin of Emma's hip where her shirt has ridden up. "You're going to be ok." Regina's thumb is tracing gentle lines along Emma's skin. The blonde burrows her face into the other woman's neck. Never has someone taken care of Emma like this. Never has someone touched her like this - just to comfort, just to love.

Emma can't stop herself from crying because this seems so very unfair. She's finally found someone. For the first time in her life she isn't alone. She needs to savor this feeling, because if she's going to die then she wants to hold onto this for as long as possible.

Regina feels wetness on her neck, and she bends to press another kiss to Emma's forehead. "Regina?" Emma's voice is raspy and soft. "Promise me something."

"What?"

"If she kills me, you won't forget who you are. Vengeance isn't worth losing yourself for." Regina lets out a wry chuckle. She devoted most of her life to vengeance. That is who she is. Her hand moves to smooth Emma's hair. She can't imagine going back to when she didn't have this woman in her life.

"Regina," Emma repeats, lifting her head from the brunette's shoulder. "Promise me." Regina just smiles at Emma. "Hey! I am not joking here. You cannot become the Evil Queen again. That's not who you are anymore." Regina gives a shrug telling Emma she doesn't believe that. "It's not. But even if you don't believe it, promise me anyway. You already promised Henry, and he needs you to keep your promise."

"Ok," Regina chokes out. "I promise. But just to be clear, Emma, you are not dying. So I think this promise is rather moot."

Emma laughs softly. "Noted." She presses herself against Regina again, and the former queen wastes no time in wrapping her arms back around her lover. Regina focuses on making Emma feel safe, on making sure that she isn't afraid. Emma so wishes that the former queen could see her own goodness in moments like this, could understand that her ability to love like this makes her so very worthy of redemption. Not just for Henry or for Emma. But for herself.

There's a banging on the door and Emma steels herself for the loss of the comforting warmth beside her. Regina stands and looks like she's taking a moment to brace herself for having to deal with Snow and Charming.

Emma hears Snow's frantic, "Where is she?" and Charming's "What did you do?" as Regina opens the door. Then there are heavy footsteps on the stairs, and really it's a miracle that Henry hasn't woken up yet.

"Emma!" Snow shrieks, throwing her arms around her daughter. "What happened? Why are you tied up?"

"Cora took my heart," Emma admits once Snow has moved back to look at her.

"No," Snow gasps.

"How could you let this happen?" David demands, turning to Regina.

Emma sees Regina's face fall; she knows how guilty the former queen feels for what's happened. "David stop!" Emma yells, maybe a little too loudly. "We don't know how Cora did it. I was dreaming about my heart being gone, and I woke up and it was."

"Regina," Snow says in a frail voice, "Do you know how that's possible?" In this moment Regina isn't her enemy, because all that matters is getting Emma's heart back, and Snow knows that Regina is their best shot at that.

"I have a few ideas, but they're all just guesses really. What matters is getting Emma's heart back."

"And you can do that?" Snow asks hopefully. Her voice reminds Regina of the little girl who had looked up to her stepmother, who had believed that she could make everything better. The reminder of who Snow is hits Regina at the most inconvenient moment.

The former queen looks at Emma, reminds herself to be civil, and continues. "I have some ideas," she says, not wanting to explain in front of Emma – not when Cora could be using the blonde's heart to listen to the conversation. Snow nods, understanding Regina's reasons for not saying more. "I need to go, which is why I called you both here. One of you needs to take Henry back to your apartment."

"Why?" David asks.

"Because," Regina says sounding rather impatient - really this should be obvious. "My mother can control Emma. And we want Henry to be far away from that."

"Oh baby," Snow says, moving to hug Emma again. Arms wrap around Emma, and she knows she should want this. She's dreamed of a family since she can remember, but it's too much. "Don't be scared, Emma. You'll be ok." She can't do this – show weakness in front of people. Somehow, Regina is an exception. Emma wants her lover's arms back around her so badly she's almost crying. "Don't cry sweetie."

Emma's eyes look pleadingly at Regina, and the brunette understands immediately. "Can you give us a few minutes?"

"Absolutely not!" David says, "She's our daughter. And _your mother_ ripped her heart out of her chest."

Regina bites her tongue only out of respect for Emma's privacy. The blonde still hasn't told her parents that she's living with Regina for any reason other than to learn magic. Though Charming must be even denser than Regina thought if he can't figure out that there is something between herself and his daughter, who is currently tied to Regina's bed.

Henry's voice shakes Regina from her thoughts. "She took your heart?!" he asks as he runs at Emma, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Yeah kid. She did," Emma says sadly. She doesn't know what to do or how to reassure him. Henry's crying against Emma's chest, and all Emma can think in the moment is that she would give anything for him not to hurt. Her fear means nothing. She just wants Henry to stop hurting. She wonders if that's what it feels like to be a mother.

Regina sits down next to her son and his other mother. She puts a hand on Henry's back, rubbing circles as he cries. Her other hand finds the back of Emma's head, and the blonde is immediately grateful. "Emma's going to be ok. It's going to be alright, sweetheart."

The words might be meant for Henry, but they calm Emma anyway.

"Henry," Regina says, her hand gently running through his hair. "I'm going to go and find Emma's heart. I need for you to go with David back to his apartment."

"Mooomm!" Henry whines, and Emma actually laughs out loud. "I can come with you. I can help!" He sits up and looks at Regina with enthusiasm.

"Henry, do you remember when Emma came through the portal, and you asked me to have faith in you?"

"Yeah."

"Now I need you to have faith in me, ok? I am going to get Emma's heart back. I need you to go with David, because I have to know that you're safe. You and Emma are my family, and I am going to take care of you."

"But I can help you! We can get Emma's heart back together." _Damn Charming genes, _Regina thinks. But then Henry continues - "I can protect you" – and her heart melts.

She wraps Henry up in a hug. He sniffles against her shoulder. He's facing the very real possibility of losing both of his mothers. He may be brave and mature, but this is far more than a little boy should have to deal with. "I'm going to be ok Henry. But I can't concentrate on what I need to do if I'm worried about you. What matters most to Emma and me is that you're safe."

"Ok," Henry says. "But you have to come back."

"I will," Regina says, shaking all doubt from her voice. This may be the first time that Regina has ever felt needed. Henry doesn't just need a mother. He needs _her_.

"Listen to him, Regina," Emma adds. "Don't do anything stupid." _They_ need her. Emma and Henry need her. Regina's heart swells.

Regina nods and tries to smile without letting tears fall. "Go pack a bag," she tells Henry.

"Come on," David says, walking Henry out of the room.

Snow is standing awkwardly next to the bed, watching her daughter and the woman she had once considered a mother. There's no denying it anymore. "Regina. You'll keep her heart safe? You'll bring it home?" Snow says, because she can't bear to say any more. She can't bear to say _You love her_.

Regina looks into Emma's eyes. "Always."


	9. Chapter 9

Regina knows her mother well enough to know that she will bring her collection of hearts to whatever world she travels. _Just one more way they're alike_, Regina muses as she walks down the dock. Her mother is a collector, and she will have put her new prized possession in its proper place.

The glamour that Cora used to hide the ship is good, but Regina is quickly remembering how powerful her own magic is when she lets herself use it. It is with little difficulty that she forces the ship to reveal itself to her. Then, with a sense of dread that Regina hasn't felt since she was a girl, she steps on board.

She begins to search each room before she remembers the pull of a heartbeat – how it had sung to her. She stops and listens. She can hear them. She can feel their pulse echoing in her ears. She follows the hearts.

There's an entire room of them – well hidden of course, but it too reveals itself to Regina as if she were the hearts' master. She steps inside, and for a moment this seems hopeless. There are hundreds of boxes.

But then Regina feels it – she feels Emma's heart pulling her closer. The pull is different from the hearts' echo – different from the way she had trained her body to know the sound of heart ready for her possession. No, Emma's heart pulls Regina as if it recognizes something of itself in the former queen. She walks forward, and she knows with a certainty that she's never truly felt that this heart belongs to her. Just as she belongs to it.

Regina reaches out for the box, opening it with surprisingly steady fingers. The organ in front of her pulses, and she can feel its beat match the rapid rhythm of her own heart.

Regina hears footsteps on the stairs – and of course her mother is here – of course this is a trap set to snag her daughter. The fear that grips Regina is not for her own safety, but because she's standing with Emma's heart in her hands – a heart that her mother could so easily crush.

And then Regina's chest begins to aches with need. She looks down and sees Emma's heart glow brighter. Regina understands what she has to do, and it is with absolute certainty that she picks up Emma's heart and presses it against her own chest.

As her hand travels into her chest, Regina feels the most overwhelming sense of warmth and joy settle over her. She feels whole for the first time in so very, very long. She can feel Emma inside her. Her heart, her soul, her memories. Her love. Oh gods, her love.

"Hello dear," Cora's voice echoes over the pounding of hearts. Regina tries to focus on what's happening in front of her even as what's happening in her chest feels big enough to drown out everything else. She focuses. _She needs to defeat Cora so she can save Emma, so she can go home to her family. _ The intensity of what Regina is experiencing recedes, leaving a gentle sense of warmth and protection and love.

"Hello Mother."

"Hello dear. I've been expecting you."

"What is it that you want?" Regina asks, because she truly doesn't understand why Cora has come here.

"You," the older woman breathes, her voice dripping like honey.

"And you thought the best way to get me was to take Emma's heart."

"I know you my darling. I know how easily you succumb to the false promises of love. But it only leaves you empty in the end, isn't that right."

"No," Regina roars. The strength of her voice surprising both women.

"So you're here to defend your Savior? To return her heart?" Cora asks with a laugh.

Regina says nothing. She wonders if her mother really doesn't know that Emma's heart is already safely tucked inside Regina's chest.

"Do you really think it will last Regina? Do you really believe that she would love someone like you?" Cora flicks her wrist and Regina feels as though a whip has hit her stomach. Regina doubles over, but she refuses to cry out. "You're dirty Regina. You always have been." Another strike. A strangled sob escapes. "But I still love you. Because I'm your mother."

Regina feels the anger growing in her chest, and she knows the feeling is coming from Emma's heart. Regina has never felt this kind of anger on her own behalf at her mother's abuse – she has never believed with this kind of ferocity that she deserved anything other than what her mother had offered. But even without being here, Emma is telling Regina that what she had believed for years – that she was everything Cora told her she was – was wrong. _You are capable of so much love. You deserve so much love. You are so very loved. _

Regina hangs onto that wonderful, new feeling. She hangs onto the fact that Emma and Henry love her and need her, and that she is good enough for them. And then she gives in to the magic inside her. The magic flows from Emma's heart, and Regina lets all the magic Emma had absorbed and all the magic she had already possessed seep into her own blood. It tangles with Regina's own magic, and it's power beyond anything Regina has experienced.

Regina thinks of Henry and Emma, and she holds tight to them as she summons up the magic inside her, focusing it, bending it to her will.

"What are you doing?" Cora asks as her daughter's eyes glow purple. "Honestly Regina, are you going to try to get rid of me again? You know that won't work."

But Cora underestimates her daughter. She always has.

"You foolish girl. You think you can kill me?"

"No," Regina says, beginning to draw Cora's magic towards her. Her body burns with it. It feels like the day at the well, but so much more.

Cora feels the magic leaving her. "How is this possible?"

Regina watches as her mother's face becomes more panicked. She looks frightened – Regina has never seen it before – her mother looks like the young woman Regina could have imagined her mother to be all those years ago when she had called on Rumplestilskin's aid.

"Don't you do this," Cora demands, trying to summons up all her strength to sound like the person that she knows her daughter fears.

"I'm sorry Mother." Even with everything her mother has done to Regina and to the people she loves this still feels like the ultimate betrayal.

The energy rushes into Regina. It feels nothing like when she had placed Emma's heart in her chest. There's no connection. She understands nothing more of her mother.

There's just power. So much power entering her body. Regina reminds herself that she is strong and powerful and in control. _Henry_. She focuses on her son's face. She can trust herself with this magic. It fills her veins, settles into her every cell.

Cora's on the floor, and Regina knows it's done: her mother is no longer a danger.

There's nothing there but a broken woman.

It's a feeling that Regina understands too well. "Mother?" she asks walking closer to the woman that even now Regina still loves so much.

And then Cora smiles. "I'm proud of you, Regina. You did what a Queen would. You took power."

"I didn't…"

"There's no one here but us. Why lie when I've always known who you really were."

"You're wrong. I've never wanted power."

"Ah, yes. You always wanted love," Cora says mockingly.

"Yes." Regina will not be ashamed. "I have that now. I'm happy." Regina doesn't know if her mother ever loved her at all, but maybe there's some part of Cora that would want her child to have love and happiness.

"I love you, Momma," Regina says, because it had changed her life to hear her son say those words again. And a part of her still believes – like she had as a child – that if she is good enough, if she says or does the right thing – that it will please her mother.

There are tears on Cora's cheeks when she looks up at her daughter. "Thank you dear. I've kept my heart outside my chest for years now – to keep it safe. But that's not necessary anymore, is it? You wouldn't do that to me now, would you?"

"No."

"Then would you bring it to me?"

Once more Regina knows which heart she seeks. She doesn't know whether her mother's magic guides her to the heart or if there is something within Regina herself that is inexorably tied to the other woman. She picks the heart up in her hands. For years she had wanted to understand the mysteries the organ contained.

Regina returns to Cora. "Would you like me to replace it for you?" Her mother has no magic; she won't be able to accomplish the task herself.

"May I see it first?" Cora asks, seeming sad and resigned. Regina wonders if her mother finally regrets the things she's done, wonders how she could have done all that she has. Regina places the heart in her mother's palm.

Cora stares at the glowing organ for a minute. And then she squeezes.

"Noooo!"

There's only dust.

Cora's body falls lifelessly.

"Mother! No! Why would you do this?" Regina clutches at her mother's body. A painful, choking sob escapes from her lips. "Mother."

Regina buries her face in her mother's chest and cries. She clutches the older woman as Henry clutches Regina when he needs comfort. Even as a child Regina had never found comfort at her mother's breast. But she seeks it now. Because even after everything this still feels like unbearable heartbreak.

Regina stays pressed there until the fabric of her mother's dress is soaked through with tears. And then she stands. Emma and Henry are waiting for her. Waiting – afraid and needing her. There will be time later to grieve.

She looks down at Cora lying on the ground. Regina will come back later for the body – to burn it or bury it at sea. She can't keep the reminder now, just as she hadn't been able to take her mother's body to Storybrooke. Because loving her mother had always been a weakness. Cora had made certain of that.

Cora had taken something beautiful and precious – a child's love for her parent – and used it to manipulate and hurt. She had withheld and given her love as strategically as any other weapon. Until she had complete control over her daughter – able to manipulate Regina with the mere threat of being unloved or the promise of her mother's affection.

Regina doesn't want the reminder of that kind of love anymore. She doesn't want to look at a tomb and think of when love led to pain so bad she didn't know how to survive it, when her mother's particular brand of love turned Regina into a woman she never wanted to be.

She climbs onto the dock – back to the visible world. There's no physical trace of what has just happened. No blood covering Regina – no mark, no scar.

She keeps walking. The tears still drip from Regina's face. As if in response to her sorrow, the heart in Regina's chest warms her. The feeling wraps around Regina as strongly as when she's in Emma's arms.

Cora hadn't understood the power in this feeling. She hadn't understood the strength love could give you. The strength Regina had found when she had been brought to her knees – when she thought she had lost everything.

But she had found something instead. She had rediscovered what she had known to be true as a young woman – that love is magic and power and that she could trust her heart to know it, to embrace it, to make her better.

Her heart knows it now.

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_A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. There will probably be a couple more after this, because, as you likely figured out by now, I am far more interested in characters' emotional journeys than I am in action and plot. And while this chapter might have wrapped up the action, I want to spend a little more time with Regina and Emma processing what's happened. As always I very much appreciate your reviews and would love to know what you thought of this chapter._


	10. Chapter 10

_We're just about coming to the end here folks. I'm planning to write an epilogue soon to follow up on where our favorite ladies are a year down the line. Thanks so much for all the reviews/follows/favorites. I appreciate all your support!_

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"Regina!" Snow runs at the woman as soon as she walks into the house. Her former stepmother looks empty handed and dazed, and Snow's heart plummets.

"You didn't find it."

"I did," Regina says curtly, snapping out of her thoughts and focusing on the woman in front of her. "Emma's going to be ok." Regina pushes past Snow and continues up the stairs to the bedroom.

Emma's still tied to the bed, and she looks so worried. The blonde's face breaks into a smile of relief as Regina walks into the room. "You're ok," Emma says, the words sounding like a prayer. She feels able to breathe for the first time since Regina left.

Regina smiles at Emma and walks over to untie the sheriff. As soon as Emma's hands are free, she wraps them around Regina's neck. "I was so scared."

"I promised I would bring your heart back," Regina says, taking comfort in the feel of Emma's warm body pressed up against her.

"No. I was so scared she would hurt you." Emma pulls back to look at Regina. "Did she?"

"She's gone." Regina's words are hollow, devoid of emotion or comprehension.

Emma pulls Regina back into a hug. "I'm sorry." Regina loves Emma so much for knowing how painful this is, for not judging her for this pain.

Regina waits for Emma to ask what happened, but she doesn't. And oddly Regina finds that she wants to tell. She wants to share this, because she knows Emma will make the pain more bearable. "I took her magic, and she crushed her own heart." Emma says nothing – just holds on tighter. "But _your_ heart," Regina says, looking at Emma, "I have right here." She presses her palm to her chest.

"You've stolen my heart again, Madame Mayor." Emma tells her lover with a grin.

Regina remains somber and serious. "Before I put it back, I need to tell you something. When I put your heart in my chest, I felt everything." Regina's voice breaks as she remembers the intensity of that moment. "I felt everything you've experienced."

"Like you had my memories?" Emma asks horrified. She looks away embarrassed. She doesn't want her lover to have the memories of her in jail, of her hurting people when she was a bounty hunter, of her giving Henry away, of her as a scared child crying herself to sleep.

Regina picks up Emma's chin forcing eye contact. "You listen to me, my dear," she says, her voice leaving no room for argument. "You are the very strongest, most beautiful person I have ever met. And I love you even more now."

Emma doesn't doubt for a minute that Regina means every word she's just said. The glorious feeling of acceptance and love wraps around Emma once again. She doesn't know how she'll ever get used to this.

"I suspect that when I put your heart in your chest, you will see my memories as well." There's no emotion in Regina's voice, and Emma knows this game: trying to convince yourself that you don't care. "There's no obligation between us," Regina says coldly, as she reaches into her chest.

For a minute Emma is frightened of what she's going to see. She swallows hard and tells the brunette, "I love you, Regina. And nothing's going to change that."

Regina laughs. If only she could believe those words. She looks down at the heart in her palm – a heart that she had thought contained her whole future. She moves her hand forward towards Emma's chest. "I promise I won't hurt you."

"I know," Emma says. She watches as Regina's hand disappears into her chest.

Regina waits until she feels that Emma's heart is safe where it belongs before she stands from the bed. She needs to leave. She can't see the look on Emma's face when she sees every unspeakable thing Regina has ever done.

Emma feels everything all at once. The pain of Cora's blows. The reprieve from the pain that came with Daniel's love. The hope that she could be free. The weight of Leopold's body trapping her once again. The years of misery and rage and loneliness. The utter despair and emptiness of holding her father's heart in her hand. The unimaginable love and joy of holding Henry. The pride, the worry, the care, the tenderness of being his mother. The surprising happiness of being in Emma's embrace. The adoration of making love to Emma.

Emma gasps at the onslaught of emotions, and Snow is at her side in a moment. "Are you ok?" the brunette asks, seeing the pain on her daughter's face.

There's so much pain, and Emma's feeling all of it. There's so much pain hidden behind Regina's dark eyes that Emma doesn't know how the former queen survived years of that misery. But shining through that is the love – Regina's love – that Emma now feels. It's a mother's love that overwhelms everything. And it's love for Emma. So much love for Emma. It's hard for the blonde to accept that anyone could feel that for her – that anyone could want to be with her, to take care of her, so badly. But Regina does.

Then Emma realizes that Regina is no longer next to her, and Emma jumps out of bed to chase down her lover. It's not too hard to find Regina as she stands in Henry's room absent-mindedly stroking a teddy bear he's had since he was a baby. Regina turns around when Emma enters the room and asks, "Are you ok?" She's afraid of the pain her memories could have caused.

"You're kind of an idiot, you know that right?"

It's light and snarky, and not at all what Regina was expecting after Emma saw memories of Regina trying to murder both of Emma's parents.

Emma presses her lips to Regina's with so much love and passion that it confuses Regina to no end. She deserves nothing but loathing.

"I love you even more now," Emma says, echoing Regina earlier declaration. "And there is an obligation between us. You made me want to stay in one place for the first time in my life. I have you and our kid, and I'm not leaving either of you."

"But you saw everything?" Regina asks incredulously.

"Yes. And do you know what I see now? A good woman."

"Then you're mistaken," Regina challenges. Maybe she can change for Henry and Emma, but the former queen is quite certain that she can never be _good_.

"I'm not. I felt everything Regina," Emma says putting her hands on her lover's cheeks. Regina shudders at the touch. "I felt the pain you've gone through and I understand why you did everything you did."

"You can't."

"I love you anyway," Emma says simply. "I felt how much love you have for me and for Henry. Anyone who can still love like that after all the shit you've been through is amazing." Emma looks into Regina's eyes as she speaks. She knows the brunette doesn't believe the words, but they have plenty of time for Emma to convince her. "I'm not running and neither are you."

Regina still looks terrified and unsure, and there's only one thing Emma can think to do to wipe that look of her face. Emma pulls Regina into a kiss, and it isn't until Emma's hand is snaking up the back of Regina's shirt that the brunette pulls away. "Your mother is here, Emma," Regina chides. But it's playful and teasing, and really that's all Emma had wanted to achieve anyway.

"I can leave and get Henry for you," Snow offers awkwardly from the hall.

"You can come in the room," Emma tells her mother. "I haven't taken Regina's shirt off yet."

Emma hears her name being yelled incredulously in stereo, and she smiles. At least family dinners will never be boring.

Snow walks cautiously into the room. "Thank you Regina. For bringing Emma's heart back." It's a choice to overlook the years of hate between Snow and Regina. To go past the apologies and tears that Snow knows are not in the cards for the two of them. Snow is learning to accept things as they are. She's accepted that she has a 29 year old daughter whose childhood she will never get to see. There's nothing as hard as that.

"You're welcome," Regina says. There's so much to say, but no words for it. No hallmark greeting card to express the complexity of her relationship with Snow. This truce for Emma's sake will have to be enough for now. "Would you mind calling David and asking him to bring Henry over. I don't want him worrying anymore."

"Of course," Snow says.

As soon as she's out of the room, Emma pulls Regina back in for another kiss. "Promise me something," Emma says, when she stops for a breath.

"Anything."

"Promise you won't leave me." Emma can take fights and sleeping on the couch, but she has to know that Regina isn't going anywhere.

"Hey," Regina says softly, looking into her lover's eyes. "I wasn't leaving. I was just scared that once you knew what I'd done _you_ wouldn't want to stay." Regina sees Emma's fears, sees the insecurity that years of never being loved or wanted has brought. "I want you more than anything Emma. There's nowhere I would rather be than with you. So as long as you'll have me, this is right where I'm going to be."

Emma smiles. They might be two of the most screwed up people in the world, but they have each other. They have each other and all the time in the world to figure this thing out. Because for the first time since the curse broke there's no imminent danger, there are no ogres, there's no one trying to kill them. It's simply Emma and Regina and their son.

* * *

Henry comes running into the house not a moment too soon to interrupt one of the most awkward teatimes in history. "Mom! Emma!" he yells running over to the couch and wrapping his arms around both of them.

"We're both ok, Henry," Regina reassures.

"Yeah, your mom was a hero, kid. She got my heart back," Emma tells Henry as she slides over so that Henry can sit comfortably between them.

"Cool! How'd you do it Mom?" he asks expecting to hear a tale of daring and adventure out of his book.

"What do you say we save that for later," Emma says. She loves the kid and she's glad that he's lived a sheltered life up until recently, but sometimes his naiveté is a bit much. "It's been a long day."

It's not even noon, but Henry doesn't say anything. His mom's eyes look haunted, and Henry wonders what she had to do to save Emma.

Emma reaches around Henry's back to put a comforting hand on Regina's neck, a thumb caressing the side of the former queen's face.

"What's going on here," Charming asks noticing the intimacy between his daughter and Regina.

Snow just rolls her eyes. "Come on, Charming," she says standing up and walking over to her husband. She looks at Emma who offers a grateful smile. It's with a bit of melancholy that Snow acknowledges that sitting there on the couch together, Emma, Regina, and Henry look like a family. Snow never had that. She and David never cuddled their daughter between them. They never reached for a kiss over Emma's head.

Emma sees the sadness in Snow's eyes, and even if it makes the blonde uncomfortable, she feels the need to say it: "I'll call you tomorrow, _Mom_." The smile that spreads across Snow's face is worth it.

Snow tears up instantly. "Oh, Emma." She looks as touched as any mother hearing her child utter the word _mama _for the first time.

Regina's hand rests on Emma's knee, knowing how emotional this is for the blonde as well. Snow sees the quiet gesture of support, and as much as bringing Emma's heart back, Snow recognizes the gentle reassurance as a mark of love. Snow knows all about Regina's capacity for hate, but she also knows about her former stepmother's capacity for love. And Snow knows that her daughter will be properly loved and cared for. "We'll talk to you tomorrow then," Snow agrees, taking David by the hand and leading him – mouth still agape – towards the door.

Regina smiles at Emma. It's the first time in decades that Snow's joy hasn't made Regina scowl, hasn't made her want to rip the smile from the woman's face. There's been enough pain to last them all a lifetime, and now all Regina wants is peace and quiet to enjoy her family.

"What do you guys want to do today?" Henry asks.

"Aren't you tired, kid?" Emma asks, "You've been up since before 5." Emma feels like she could sleep for days.

Henry shrugs, feeling wide-awake. "Want to watch a movie?"

"Sounds like a great idea," Regina agrees quickly, before Henry moves onto a suggestion that involves moving off the couch. "Why don't you pick one out and I'll make cocoa."

"And popcorn?" Emma asks hopefully.

Regina shakes her head and smiles. "And popcorn."

As soon as Regina leaves the room, Henry turns to Emma and asks, "Is my mom ok?"

"She will be," Emma assures. "She lost her mother today." Henry nods; he suspected as much.

"Did Mom kill Cora?" Henry asks curiously. This trait of incessant questioning and wanting to know everything, Emma is blaming on Regina.

"No, but your mom sacrificed a lot to bring my heart back. She's going to need a little extra love and patience for a while, I think. But she'll be ok. We all will be." These last few months must have been so difficult for Henry, but finally Regina and Emma can both be here to help him deal with all the changes.

"Are we going to be like a normal family now?"

"Not sure we're ever going to be normal," Emma tells Henry. She tries to picture what holidays are going to look like from now on….nope, definitely not normal. "But I love you and I love your mom. And we are going to be a family."

"Awesome! I love you too."

Emma ruffles Henry's hair. "Go pick out a good movie."

Regina hears the theme song to _Harry Potter _playing as she makes her way into the living room. "Two hot cocoas with whipped cream and cinnamon," she says handing one to Henry and one to Emma before returning to the kitchen to grab the popcorn and her cup of tea.

When Regina returns she finds that Henry and Emma have left a spot for her in the middle of the couch. She settles herself between them, watching as the pair proceeds to lick all the whipped cream off their cocoa in unison.

Emma picks up Regina's arm and pulls it around her shoulder, snuggling in closer as the movie begins. Regina leans down to place a kiss to Emma's head.

It's been over four decades since Regina has been in love. Long, lonely years where she thought that her heart had hardened and she would be incapable of feeling anything like what she's feeling now. But her body remembers, her soul remembers, how to be in love, how to give herself over to it. Finally, after so long, she feels right.

"Stop hogging the popcorn," Emma demands as Henry repeatedly tosses popcorn in the air and fails to catch it in his mouth.

Regina grabs the bowl and settles it on her lap. "Now children, do you think you two can share, or do I need to get you your own bowls?"

Emma rolls her eyes. "No Mom," she says sarcastically before stuffing a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

Henry yawns and leans his head against Regina, who wraps her arm securely around him. Family safely in her arms, Regina smiles. This feels like the happy ending she's been searching for.

* * *

"You should sleep," Regina tells Emma as the blonde descends the stairs in a pair of Regina's pajamas. "You look exhausted."

Emma shrugs. She's been awake for 20 hours now and would love to sleep, but it's pretty obvious that Regina isn't going to be sleeping tonight, and Emma will not leave her lover alone right now. "Are you making tea?"

"Really Emma. You don't need to stay awake with me. I'll be fine."

_Stubborn_, Emma thinks affectionately. "Nah. Can't sleep without you anyway."

"I know that isn't true. I believe you could sleep through an earthquake." But Regina doesn't argue about Emma staying awake with her. Instead she prepares Emma's tea exactly how she likes it, presses the cup into the blonde's hand, and whispers a sincere "Thank you."

They settle themselves on the couch together. Regina spreads throw blankets across their laps and pulls Emma into her arms. "Do you want to talk?" Emma asks, burrowing her face into the crook of Regina's neck.

"I can't," Regina says. It hurts too much to think of what she had done to her mother today. "I'm not ready yet."

"I'll still be here when you are."

"I know," Regina says sincerely. For once she doesn't feel like she has to fight to keep the people she loves from disappearing from her life.

Emma fights sleep as long as she can, but it isn't too long before she succumbs to the soothing feeling of Regina's hands rubbing gentle circles on her back. "Too hard to resist," Emma mumbles, only semi-coherently as sleep begins to overtake her.

Regina chuckles. Emma reminds her so much of Henry when he went through his phase at 6 years old of not wanting to sleep. He would insist that he wasn't tired, but the second Regina began to sing and rub his back, he would be out like a light. "Go to sleep, Emma."

"Mmm," Emma moans as fingers run through her hair. "Ok, but you'll wake me if you need me?"

"Yes dear."

"Regina! I'm serious," Emma says, suddenly more awake.

"Shh. I'll wake you, ok? Now rest."

Emma nods against Regina's chest.

"I love you Emma."

"Love you too," the blonde mumbles before her breathing evens out and Regina knows she's asleep.

Yes, this feels exactly like a happy ending.


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: This is the last chapter. I've had a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope that you've enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and for all your support._

* * *

_It takes a minor melt down on Emma's part for Regina to even think about the idea of marriage._

"Do you think you could manage to not leave every single one of our coffee mugs on the kitchen counter," Regina asks lightly one afternoon when she gets home to find Emma sitting in the kitchen, sipping coffee from one mug and surrounded by three other empty cups.

"I'm sorry I'm not keeping your house up to its normal standards of cleanliness." It's harsh and loud and followed immediately by Emma getting up from where she is sitting next to Henry to slam her current mug down in the sink.

Regina is taken aback. She chides Emma all the time for her messiness. "I rather think you're overreacting."

"You do, do you?" Emma asks, her voice icy and _mean_.

Henry watches as Regina stiffens, and he wonders if she's about to start yelling as well. But she takes a deep breath and calms herself. "I don't know what's wrong Emma, but I am not going to get into a ridiculous argument about coffee cups."

"Fine. I have to go to the station anyway." In no time at all, she's out of the house.

Regina and Henry share a confused look. "I'll be right back," Regina tells her son before following her girlfriend out of the house.

"Emma!" The blonde freezes with her hand on the door to her car. "What's going on?"

"Nothing Regina," she says through gritted teeth.

Regina can tell that Emma is nowhere near ready to talk about whatever it is. "Ok." Regina understands bitchiness as a default mode, but this is something that she's rarely seen from Emma. "I'll see you tonight."

"I probably won't be home for dinner," Emma adds, even though they both know that Emma will be done with work in plenty of time for dinner.

Emma's pushing, but Regina isn't taking the bait. She's been with Emma for a year now, and she knows enough to wait it out. "I love you," Regina says, uncertain whether the words will reassure or upset Emma further.

"Me too," Emma mutters as she turns away from Regina and gets into her car.

Regina wraps her arms around herself as she watches her girlfriend's car disappear down the road. She isn't sure what caused that little melt down, but it isn't the first that Emma's had since they've been together. There are a lot of bad things that can be said about Regina, but she knows that one of her strengths is that she will always fight for the people she loves. Emma can push all she wants; Regina isn't going anywhere.

Regina walks back into the house to find Henry sitting where she left him visibly upset. "What's wrong with Emma?"

"I'm not sure sweetie," Regina says sitting down next to Henry. "She'll be ok, though. Don't worry."

But Henry's frown only grows. "What is it?" Regina asks.

He struggles to say the words. "I don't want Emma to leave."

"Emma's not going anywhere. She loves you, Henry. We both love you very much."

Henry offers her a smile. "I love you too." They've become a family that says _I love you_ all the time. Before bed. Before Henry gets on the bus for school. Just because.

"I don't want Emma to leave us," Henry whispers.

"What's making you worried about Emma leaving?"

He shrugs. "I brought her here, and she kept wanting to leave, and I made her stay."

"I very much doubt anyone could make Emma do something she didn't want to do."

"But she yelled at me yesterday, and today she was upset too."

Regina puts her hand on her son's back. "Being in a bad mood doesn't mean Emma's going anywhere. You've seen me in a bad mood enough times to know that."

"That's different. You're my mom." He looks upset the minute the words are out of his mouth. He feels guilty for all the times he told her the opposite. And he feels guilty for implying now that Emma isn't his mom too. Because he loves them both a whole lot.

He knows Regina wouldn't leave – even if he wanted her to. He's pushed her away enough to test that one out. Emma, though, he's still unsure about.

Not too long ago Regina would have been overjoyed that Henry was doubting his relationship with Emma, but now all Regina wants is to help strengthen Henry's bond with his other mother. The last year has been kind to Regina. She's in a good place with Henry now, and the jealously she had felt of Emma isn't there anymore. Henry's birthmother no longer feels like a threat. She's family now.

"Emma's your mom too," Regina tells Henry. "And she loves you, so you don't have to worry. Whatever Emma is upset about, I promise it has nothing to do with you." She reaches out and strokes Henry's hair. "I'll talk to Emma later and make sure that she's alright. I don't want you to worry though, ok?"

Henry nods and tries to look less anxious. Regina wishes she could soothe his fears, but she doesn't know how to convince him that Emma isn't going to run. "What do you say we go riding this afternoon?" Regina suggests. At least she can try to take Henry's mind off his worries.

"Yeah, cool," he says, surprised that his mom is suggesting riding on a school day before he's done his homework.

"Let's go get ready," Regina says, wrapping her arm around her son as they make their way up the stairs.

* * *

It had taken longer than usual for Henry to fall asleep. Regina had lain down with Henry; something that he rarely asks her to do now that he's a mature 11 year-old. She had stroked his hair and sung to him; all the while worrying herself about what exactly was going on with Emma.

By the time the blonde arrives home, Henry is asleep. Regina extricates herself from Henry, who is lying with his head on her chest. With a glance back at her son and a promise to make everything right for him, she shuts his door and goes to her bedroom.

Emma is already curled up in bed, her back facing Regina's side of the bed, her boots and jeans kicked off on the floor. Regina sits down next to her girlfriend, who makes no move to acknowledge the brunette's presence. "Emma," Regina sighs. "What can I do?"

No response. "If it were just the two of us, I would tell you to take all the time in the world until you're ready to talk to me. But Henry is quite worried, so sometime tonight or tomorrow morning before he wakes up we are going to have to talk about what's going on with you."

Still nothing. And it is incredibly frustrating. Then Regina notices Emma's back shaking; she's crying. "Oh Emma," Regina whispers. She hears a few soft gasps as Emma tries to hold back the tears. "I'm going to hold you, ok?" Regina receives no objection, so she lies down and slowly wraps her arms around Emma, spooning the blonde tightly.

Regina lays her hands over Emma's, intertwining their fingers, and places a kiss to the crook of Emma's neck. They lie like that for a long time until Emma finally stops crying and turns around in her girlfriend's arms. Regina lifts one hand to smooth back the hair stuck to tear streaked cheeks. "I'm sorry about this afternoon," Emma whispers.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Regina asks, her hand cradling Emma's cheek.

"Today is a bad day for me. It's the anniversary of when my first foster family brought me back to the group home."

Regina wishes that Emma had told her so that she could have helped her girlfriend through the day. But Regina understands pain that hurts too much to put words to. "I'm sorry, dear," Regina says, stroking her hand along Emma's cheek. Regina swallows back her guilt about what Emma's been through; this isn't about her. "Is there anything I can do to make tonight easier for you?"

"Just don't leave me, ok?" Emma says finally letting out the words she's desperately wanted to say.

"Never," Regina promises. "I love you."

"I love you too, Regina. And I know that I don't make it easy, but I need you to stay."

Regina's heart aches. "Oh Emma, you make it so easy to love you. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

Emma simply nods and then buries her face in Regina's chest. She falls asleep there with comforting arms wrapped around her.

Sleep doesn't come to Regina for a long time. She stays awake thinking about Emma and Henry. It's the first time Regina thinks about marriage. She wonders whether making things official would do anything to ease their fears.

The mere thought of being married again makes Regina feel nauseous. She had vowed to never let anyone control her again after she killed Leopold. She knows that it's ridiculous, because Emma would never hurt her or try to take control away from Regina. But still the idea of marriage only adds to the uneasiness the day has left in Regina. She stares at the bright moon out the window while she cradles the woman she loves.

* * *

_It takes a month of planning and a moment of spontaneity for Regina to pop the question._

Regina and Archie devote four whole sessions to talking about it. Marriage. Adoption. Family.

The first two sessions are 45 minutes of Regina rambling about her fears and her hopes. She introduces the topic safely. Mentions that she is considering asking Emma to marry her, maybe even to adopt Henry. She wants to do what's best for them. She asks Archie whether he thinks it would be good for Henry and Emma.

But Regina is far from the difficult patient she had been in those early days, and when Archie asks how she feels about all this, Regina barely stops talking until the session is over. Their next meeting is much the same. She wants this so badly, and yet it terrifies her. She's afraid to give Emma legal rights to Henry – still scared deep down that Emma will take her son from her – that Henry will love Emma more than her. She feels guilty for thinking these things, but the doubts bounce in her head nonetheless, and she is rather thankful for Archie's help sorting through it all.

Regina talks about how much she wants to be with Emma forever. How the thought of losing Emma keeps Regina up some nights; how she doesn't know if she would survive losing her lover. But marriage is terrifying. It dredges up memories that Regina had buried so long ago. A wedding dress. A ceremony. A wedding night. They are all things that fill Regina with a sense of sorrow and a feeling of powerlessness that are hard to shake. She and Archie talk about separating what her first marriage had been from what a marriage to Emma could be. They talk about separating in her mind a time when she had felt like a prisoner, from now, when she has worked so hard to be free, to control her own life and her own actions. A marriage to Emma, Archie suggests, if Regina wants it, could be an affirmation of Regina's ability to be an equal partner, to love and be happy.

They leave it like that at the end of their second session discussing marriage. Regina walks in the next week, sits down, and announces that she bought a ring. She's not ready yet, but she is going to ask. Archie makes sure to discuss how Regina will talk to Emma about what she needs from a wedding: no white dress, no big deal about it being their wedding night, no gin – the smell still reminds her of her former husband. Just Regina and Emma promising to be a family. Archie encourages Regina to _really_ talk to Emma. To not walk on eggshells making sure that Emma won't run away. They both need to talk if they're going to do this.

The forth week Regina spends a lot of her session asking Archie his opinion of different romantic ways to pop the question. The therapist knows that Regina is still trying to come to terms with all her feelings before she is truly ready to ask. This week she seems particularly afraid that Emma will say no. She's trying to be ok with that too. As long as they're together.

When Regina leaves Archie's office he is fairly certain that they will be having a similar conversation at their next session. He's rather pleasantly surprised to see her the next week wearing a ring instead.

* * *

"He's out like a light," Regina says when Emma glances over at where Henry is lying on the couch cattycorner to the one she and Regina are sitting on. "He's been asleep for at least the last half hour."

"And you made me sit through the end of the movie anyway?"

"_The Princess Bride _is a classic."

"I'm surprised you like it," Emma says. "I would have thought you wouldn't be a fan of anything remotely like a fairytale."

"Henry always loved the movie when he was little."

"And you just couldn't say no to him." Emma smiles at Regina; she loves that her girlfriend is such a good mother to their son.

"Indeed," Regina agrees.

"I'm going to go carry the kid upstairs."

Regina watches as Emma picks up their son. Henry wraps himself around Emma, cuddling against her in his sleep. He trusts her. He loves her. Regina has watched Emma truly become Henry's mother this year. She's watched Emma trust herself to love him, to take care of him. She's a good mother, and she makes Regina a better mother too.

Regina realizes as she watches Emma carry Henry up the stairs that they are already a family. A wedding won't change anything. It would be Emma and Regina promising to be exactly what they are now – forever. And Regina wants that. Not just to give Emma and Henry security, but for herself too. She wants to tell the world that she and Emma are family and that they always will be.

Regina walks into the laundry room where she has a small velvet box stashed behind bottles of laundry detergent. She picks up the box, smiling to herself, and slips the ring into her pocket.

"Where'd you go?" Emma calls.

"Right here, dear." Regina reenters the living room. "He didn't wake up?"

"Nope. We have the night to ourselves."

"How about I pour us some wine," Regina says. She turns from Emma and walks into the kitchen trying to find the right words to say. Regina reaches for the wine glasses and picks a bottle of her favorite pinot noir. She slowly fills the glasses, corks the bottle, and returns to the living room. By the time she has slipped a glass into Emma's hands, Regina feels ready.

"There's something I want to talk to you about."

"What?" Emma asks, setting her glass down on the coaster Regina always insists on.

"I love you so much, Emma. You've shown me happiness that I didn't know existed, and all I want is to do the same for you. I want forever with you. I want us to be a family – you and me and Henry. I know that we haven't talked about marriage before, and I understand if it's something that you don't want or you aren't ready for. But I love you, and I want to marry you. So if you want to – whenever you want to – I want to call you my wife."

Regina watches as Emma's eyes become comically big. "Is this a proposal?" Emma asks, a grin spreading across her face.

"Well, yes dear."

"And why aren't you down on one knee?"

Regina laughs, and no matter what happens tonight it doesn't matter because she is going to spend her life with this woman. "I suppose I thought you might want to talk about it first. I didn't want to put you on the spot if marriage isn't something you want."

"We can talk after you do this right," Emma says. Her heart is thumping in her chest, and she is damn well terrified. But she wants this perfect moment unencumbered by her own insecurities or Regina's allowances for them. Emma can freak out later. They can discuss everything later. Right now she wants this memory they can tell their grandkids about.

Regina gets off the couch and kneels down in front of Emma, pulling the ring from her pocket. "I love you, and I want to spend my whole life with you. Emma Swan, will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Emma says, certain she has never felt _so damn much_ in her whole life. She is scared, there's no denying that. But she also loves Regina more than anything she ever thought possible. And the fact that the woman she loves wants to be with her forever is everything Emma could ask for. She pulls Regina into her arms for a kiss. "Yes, yes, yes."

* * *

They are married at city hall three days later. They agree to have a celebration soon with Emma's family and most of the town in attendance. But for their wedding – for this intimate moment where they are both taking a leap that they never thought they would take – where they are both giving something that they didn't realize they had within themselves to give – they want it to just be them and Henry.

They don't write vows to say at the ceremony. They are private people, and the whispered words of love that they say to each other in the safety of their bedroom are all they need to know that this day is about true love.

"Do you, Emma Swan, take Regina Mills to be your wife?"

Emma looks at Regina, at a smile that has never seemed more genuine, at eyes that sparkle with life and hope and joy.

"I do." Emma never thought she would cry today, but she stares at Regina and promises to be her wife, and the tears come.

"Do you, Regina Mills, take Emma Swan to be your wife?"

"I do," Regina says, sounding more sure than Emma has ever heard her sound. Regina wants nothing more than to be Emma's wife. It only makes the blonde cry harder.

Henry holds out their rings, and they slip simple rose-colored gold bands onto each other's fingers.

"By the power vested in me by the state of Maine, I now pronounce you married."

The kiss contains all the promises they need – of forever and family and love and partnership and happiness. Henry throws his arms around his mothers.

They hold tight to each other.


End file.
